Epictetus Quotes

The world is evil only when you become its slave.

Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.

But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

Things are not as we would like them to be. There is only one way to deal with it, namely to try and be all right oneself.

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

While early childhood experiences may impel, they do not compel. In the end, evil is a matter of choice.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

A conscientious man ought not to regard what may happen to him in this world.

You're not going to do that. If you gave your best to what you were given, at the time, it's going to play out how it's going to play out.

I have nothing to do with anything that happens to me.

Everythings a choice. Nobody's born good. Nobody's born evil. It's always a choice.

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.

Integrity in the Moment of Choice: Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.

And does man simply choose evil, or does he create it?

It's the coward who says, 'This is fate'...It's the strong who stands up & says 'I will make my fate'

The distinction between good and evil is meaningless if one does not have the freedom to choose between them.

The Hebrew word, the word timshel - 'Thou mayest' - that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open...Why, that makes a man great...He can choose his course and fight it through and win...I have a new love for that glittering instrument, the human soul. It is a lovely and unique thing in the universe. It is always attacked and never destroyed - because 'Thou mayest'. ch 24

You either fight active evil or you accept it. Doing nothing is acceptance. There is no in-between.

Is evil something you are? Or is it something you do?

Choice is the essence of ethics: if there were no choice there would be no ethics, no good, no evil; good and evil have meaning only insofar as man is free to choose.

He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate ... can look fortune in the face.

Whatever our fate is or may be, we have made it and do not complain of it." - Vronksy {Anna Karenina}