Epictetus Happiness Quotations

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

The people have a right to the truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.

The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.

All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.

Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.

Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

God has made all men to be happy.

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions.