Quotes from Enchiridion

The Enchiridion — the 'handbook' — is Epictetus distilled: 53 short chapters compiled by his student Arrian from the Discourses. Its first line draws the distinction everything else follows from: some things are up to us, and some are not. Below: the 12 quotes in the QuotePlace collection that are verifiably from this work, each marked 'Source verified' on its own page.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

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

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

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. — Epictetus

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. — Epictetus

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well. — Epictetus

Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.

Do not say of anything that 'I have lost it,' but that 'I have given it back.' — Epictetus

Do not say of anything that 'I have lost it,' but that 'I have given it back.'

Some things are within our power, and some things are not. — Epictetus

Some things are within our power, and some things are not.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them. — Epictetus

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.

It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. — Epictetus

It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not depend on yourself. — Epictetus

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not depend on yourself.

Explore more: All Epictetus quotes · Meditations · Tao Te Ching · Illusions · The Analects · The Prophet · Think and Grow Rich · The Art of War · Dhammapada · Letters to Lucilius · Did they really say it?