Quote #41
If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows. (72)
More from Epictetus
- It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting…
- If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to t…
- A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path-he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself of…
- If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your pow…
- What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery-beware of enslaving others! If you can endure to do that…
- Canst thou judge men?... then make us imitators of thyself, as Socrates did. Do this, do not do that, else will I cast thee into prison; th…
- If then all things that grow, nay, our own bodies, are thus bound up with the whole, is not this still truer of our souls? And if our souls…
- To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their…