Epictetus Quotes

The problem is not what other people think, do or say; it is your reaction.

How do I control my emotions? How do I stop getting angry so often, or how do I stop being sad? And I think there's a really important distinction to understand is that you can't completely control your emotions. What you control is your reaction to your own emotions. And a lot of people don't ever make that separation for what goes on with them.

How others treat me is their path; how I react is mine.

You cannot stop destructive actions by others, but you can stop your own destructive reactions to them

Each of us needs to eliminate our anger, fear and greed. The roots of social conflicts and political tensions are in personal anger, fear and greed.

In every moment we make a decision -- whether conscious or unconscious. Will I choose to open my heart, send love, withhold judgment and thus free myself from fear? Or will I close my heart, project fear instead of extending love, judge others, and thus bind myself to fear? The choice is mine and mine alone.

It doesn't matter what the other is being, doing, having, saying, wanting, demanding. It doesn't matter what the other is thinking, expecting, planning. It only matters what you are being in relationship to that.

The trick is to be grateful when your mood is high and graceful when it is low.

People of little understanding are most apt to be angry when their sense is called into question.

I'm doing my best to be mindful about how I'm living: to be kind and patient, and not to impose a bad mood on somebody else. Being mindful is as good a way to be spiritual as anything else.

When we are fully conscious and aware, we actually know when we are about to overreact. When we are mindful, we have the mental space and are aware of when our moods change. When we are mindful, we are aware of when our mental models are being challenged and when expectation does not meet with reality, which can trigger an emotional response.

I really explored self-awareness and emotions through 'Green Lantern.' It might sound goofy, but I do believe that emotions have power. We're all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction. For me, it was about recognizing my self-awareness.

A spiritual person is also in touch with his or her own reality, feelings and thoughts, and the reality of the people around him or her, not projecting on them.

Compassion is the key to living outside the confines of your lower self.

You can't be responsible for the way people respond to you. You're only responsible for yourself.

The way I knew I was right about something was the kids got angry. That's very important: you touch that anger.

I don't get emotional.

I do agree that Justin has integrity, honesty and amazing judgment, but sometimes I think he's just maybe too sensitive, and that's kind of scary.

The important thing is that I control my reaction, my behavior, my attitude and my words. What I receive back is not in my control.

To begin your commitment to new perceptions, start by paying attention to attack thoughts toward yourself and others.

The essence of practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction and drop the story lines.

Don't take anything personally. Even when a situation seems so personal, even if others insult you directly, it has nothing to do with you. Their point of view and opinion come from all the programming they received growing up. When you take things personally, you feel offended and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflict. You make something big out of something so little because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong.

To me a man of meditation is bound to be immensely loving.

Empathy as a complex emotion is different. It requires awareness of the other person's feelings and of one's own reactions. The appropriate reaction may not be to cry when another person cries, but to reassure them, or even to leave them alone.

When we take time to quiet ourselves, we can all sense that our life could be lived with greater compassion and greater weakness.