Diving into the lessons and greatness of Epictetus's teachings and writings from the book:  Discourses and Selected Writings

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0:25 - A Simple Practice

How do you categorize these things, exile, imprisonment, chains, death, and disgrace… Or things like getting fired, ending a relationship, dealing with financial struggles?

It is not the events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them…Remember that it is we who torment, who make difficulties for ourselves, that is, our opinions do.

1:55 - On Misfortune

When you don’t have much, you do

4:20 - The Right Kind of Progress

Where is progress, then? If there is anyone who renounces externals and attends instead to their character, cultivating and perfecting it so that it agrees with nature, making it honest and trustworthy, elevated, free, unchecked and undeterred; and if they've learned that whoever desires or avoids things outside their control cannot be free or faithful, but has to shift and fluctuate right along with them, subject to anyone with the power to furnish or deprive them of these externals; and if from the moment they get up in the morning they adhere to their ideals, eating and bathing like a person of integrity, putting their principles into practice in every situation they face - the way a runner does when he applies the principles of running, or a singer those of musicianship - that is where you will see true progress embodied, and find someone who has not wasted their time making the journey here from home."

8:20 - The Only Gift You Need

So it’s only appropriate that the gods have given us the best and most efficacious gift: the ability to make good use of impressions…Don’t let the force of the impression when first it hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, ‘hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test.

13:40 - On Getting What You Want

This is god's signal to you: if you want, you are free, if you want, you will blame no one, you will accuse no one - if you want, everything will happen according to plan, yours as well as God’s

14:30 - The Two Worst Vices

There were two vices much blacker and more serious than the rest: lack of persistence and lack of self control: The former means we cannot bear and endure hardships that we have to endure, the latter means that we cannot resist pleasures or other things we ought to resist.

19:15 - A daily reminder

When giving your wife or child a kiss, repeat to yourself, ‘ I am kissing a mortal,’ Then you won’t be so distraught if they are taken from you.

20:50 - One Final Note

How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself?

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