Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
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.
Read & copy the quotation
“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.”

Epictetus

Download image (JPG)

Source
Enchiridion
Date
c. 125 CE
English wording
George Long — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning

Meaning of “On the occasion of every accident that befalls…”

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 context

Where does it come from?

Enchiridion, section X, George Long translation; Epictetus gives examples such as endurance under pain and patience under abuse.

Primary / edition source ↗

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

Acceptance Quotes About Reality, Limits & ChangeCalmConfidence Quotes About Ability & Self-TrustCourage Quotes About Acting Despite FearDecisionEffortHard TimesHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesIdentityIndependenceInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLoveMotivation For LifeMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistenceNever Give UpPatiencePeacePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortPresent MomentResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationSelf LoveSelf RelianceSelf TrustStoicStrengthSuccessWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellActionAdversityMeditationPain
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
Thou must be like a promontory of the sea, against which though the waves beat continually, yet it stands.
Read & copy

“Thou must be like a promontory of the sea, against which though the waves beat continually, yet it stands.”

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations · c. 170 CE
Meaning & context

The image recommends steadiness under repeated pressure: external disturbance can arrive continuously without requiring inner collapse.

Source details

Meditations, Book IV, section XL, Meric Casaubon translation represented by Project Gutenberg #2680. The promontory image recommends steadiness under repeated disturbance. The frozen catalog wording shortens the represented witness after “yet it”: Gutenberg reads “yet it both itself stands, and about it are those swelling waves stilled and quieted.” This remains translation-mediated Roman Stoic moral philosophy, not a modern clinical resilience finding.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
Fortune has often in the past got the upper hand of you, and yet you have not surrendered, but have leaped up and stood your ground still more eagerly.
Read & copy

“Fortune has often in the past got the upper hand of you, and yet you have not surrendered, but have leaped up and stood your ground still more eagerly.”

Seneca · Moral letters to Lucilius · c. 65
Meaning & context

Past recovery is evidence of present capacity: being struck down by fortune is different from surrendering to it.

Source details

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 3, Richard M. Gummere translation.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
A man begins to deteriorate, to go toward failure, not when he loses all of his material possessions, not when he fails in his undertakings, but when he loses faith in himself, in his ability to make his dreams come true.
Read & copy

“A man begins to deteriorate, to go toward failure, not when he loses all of his material possessions, not when he fails in his undertakings, but when he loses faith in himself, in his ability to make his dreams come true.”

Orison Swett Marden · The Victorious Attitude · 1916
Meaning & context

Material loss and failed attempts are separated from the deeper danger of abandoning personal agency; the sentence treats continued self-belief as a resource for beginning again.

Source details

The Victorious Attitude; this sentence appears in Marden’s sustained argument that loss of self-faith is more damaging than the loss of possessions or an individual undertaking.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
I came to see that, along with his disadvantages, the Negro in America had some advantages, and I made up my mind that opportunities that had been denied him from without could be more than made up by greater concentration and power within.
Read & copy

“I came to see that, along with his disadvantages, the Negro in America had some advantages, and I made up my mind that opportunities that had been denied him from without could be more than made up by greater concentration and power within.”

Booker T. Washington · My Larger Education · 1911
Meaning & context

Washington argues for concentrating on agency that remains available under unequal conditions, without pretending those external disadvantages are unreal or morally acceptable.

Source details

My Larger Education, Chapter I, “Learning from Men and Things”; Project Gutenberg #73923. Washington reflects on how he came to emphasize internal discipline and concentrated effort while explicitly acknowledging externally imposed disadvantage.

↓ Download image (JPG)