Epictetus Quotes

Never say about anything, "I have lost it," but only "I have given it back." Is your child dead? It has been given back. Is your wife dead? She has been returned.

Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were behind you.

As for death one gets used to it, even if it's only other people's death you get used to.

No man can lose what he never had.

People come. They go. Dying is the same as rehab or moving back to Missouri. It just means I won't be seeing them again.

We do have trouble dealing with death, but it's the one thing that is guaranteed we are all going to have to do, and we are going to have to face it many times before we die ourselves.

I lost a company. So what? It's just stuff. Can't take it with you.

While I understand that all things must come to an end, whether it's a television advertisement or one's life or the world itself, it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone.

If it is, it is, If it's not, it's not.

Accepting death is a massive problem for everybody.

My death is incidental, and I worry very much about my loved ones and, you know, would like to make it as easy as possible for them. Or wish I could will away whatever, you know, the sadness they will feel when I die. But for me, nothing. The world goes on.

Someone who is about to die does not mourn the dead.

I don't expect anything from anybody. When you grow old... Your days are gone; it is part of life.

Death is an art, you know.

It will be difficult to let go but it is going to happen sooner rather than later in my case.

So how can you lose what you've never owned?

I think I'm very stoic. Death and dying are things that I'm used to.

Death always seems to be around me.

The mind that is wise mourns less for what age takes away; than what it leaves behind.

I am aware of the depths of heartache I'm experiencing but also how foolish it is to think that the things we have are permanent. They're not.

I've learned to accept death better than most people.

So we're in this process of letting go of our own attachments to our physical forms and to the people we love, and... basically everything. Life is like this one big process of letting go.

I don't want to die in pain or in an undignified way, I don't want any of the people I love to die in, die painfully. But I'm aware of the fact that they may die before I do and I have to part with them and take the loss. The hardest thing of love is to let go. But I think I can get let go of almost anybody.

If you were wise enough to know that this life would consist mostly of letting go of things you wanted, then why not get good at the letting go, rather than the trying to have?