Browse 13 quotations connecting Epictetus with Motivational, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Discourses of Epictetus, Enchiridion. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Discourses of Epictetus, Enchiridion.
“If you would make anything a habit, do it.”
Habit formation is reduced to repeated action: the behavior itself is what trains the pattern.
Source note: Discourses; Epictetus gives the instruction while explaining how repeated acts strengthen habits.
“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
Skill grows through repeated practice rather than through wanting the identity without doing the activity.
Source note: Discourses, in George Long’s translation; the line uses reading and writing as examples of habits built through practice.
“Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.”
Repeated behavior trains the corresponding habit, so change depends on practicing the desired action rather than merely endorsing it in theory.
Source note: Discourses, George Long translation; Epictetus explains that faculties and habits are strengthened by corresponding actions.
“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.”
Epictetus treats worthwhile development as organic rather than instantaneous: ability, character and reconciliation require stages of growth that cannot be skipped simply because the final result is desired now.
Source note: Discourses, Book I, Chapter XV, “What Philosophy Promises,” George Long translation, Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus gives the fig-and-grape analogy while answering someone who wants immediate guidance about repairing a brother’s unkindness.
“When you have decided that a thing ought to be done, and are doing it, never avoid being seen doing it.”
Once judgment has concluded an action is right, misplaced criticism should not become a reason to hide or abandon the action.
Source note: Enchiridion, chapter 35, George Long translation; the following sentence distinguishes right action from fear of wrong criticism.
“On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.”
Instead of beginning with what an event has taken away, the practice asks which capacity—endurance, restraint, patience, or judgment—can still be exercised.
Source note: Enchiridion, section X, George Long translation; Epictetus gives examples such as endurance under pain and patience under abuse.
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
Self-command is presented as a prerequisite for freedom because uncontrolled impulses can rule a person as effectively as an outside master.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XV, Hastings Crossley translation.
“Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men.”
Life is pictured as something shared rather than possessed privately, joining enjoyment with participation in a wider human community.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying III, Hastings Crossley translation.
“Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sweet to thee.”
A demanding way of living can become more natural through practice, so character is shaped partly by the customs a person repeatedly chooses.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XX, Hastings Crossley translation.
“What then? have you not received greatness of heart, received courage, received fortitude?”
The rhetorical question redirects attention from hardship toward capacities already available for meeting it—courage, endurance, and largeness of spirit.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XIV, in the passage comparing life’s difficulties with enduring the Olympic festival.
“Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!”
Length alone does not make a life better; Epictetus places moral quality and nobility above mere duration.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying IX, Hastings Crossley translation.
“Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead.”
Loss is not automatically the whole story; the instruction asks what freedom, clarity, experience, or other value may accompany what has been given up.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXVII, Hastings Crossley translation.
“You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work it out in life.”
Principles become character through repetition: they must be rehearsed, tested, and practiced until they survive ordinary pressure.
Source note: The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXX, Hastings Crossley translation.