Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
Where these words come from
- 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
- The Enchiridion; Translation: Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Wording matched to cited full-text edition; whitespace, punctuation, capitalization and footnote markers normalized. Literary speakers reviewed.
- The Enchiridion
More from Epictetus
See allNo thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
EpictetusIt is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.EpictetusFor where else is friendship than where there is fidelity, and modesty, where there is a communion of honest things and of nothing else.EpictetusPhilosophy does not propose to secure for a man any external thing.EpictetusFor as the carpenter’s material is wood, and that of the statuary is copper, so the matter of the art of living is each man’s life.EpictetusHow then shall my brother cease to be angry with me? Bring him to me and I will tell him. But I have nothing to say to you about his anger.Epictetus
EpictetusIt is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.EpictetusFor where else is friendship than where there is fidelity, and modesty, where there is a communion of honest things and of nothing else.EpictetusPhilosophy does not propose to secure for a man any external thing.EpictetusFor as the carpenter’s material is wood, and that of the statuary is copper, so the matter of the art of living is each man’s life.EpictetusHow then shall my brother cease to be angry with me? Bring him to me and I will tell him. But I have nothing to say to you about his anger.Epictetus