Epictetus

“For freedom is not acquired by satisfying yourself with what you desire, but by destroying your desire.”

“Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting.”

“Every habit and faculty is confirmed and strengthened by the corresponding actions, that of walking by walking, that of running by running. If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”

“What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.”

“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions.”

“No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”

“It is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death.”

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

“It is difficulties that show what men are.”

“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”

“Some things are in our control and others not.”