“The highest good is a mind that scorns the happenings of chance, and rejoices only in virtue.”
“Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?”
“A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.”
“You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.”
“Virtue is not vouchsafed to a soul unless that soul has been trained and taught, and by unremitting practice brought to perfection.”
“No man’s good by accident. Virtue has to be learnt.”
“Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, "By setting himself to live the noblest life himself."”
“Virtue is according to nature; vice is opposed to it and hostile.”
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
“Goodness exists independently of our conception of it. The good is out there and it always has been out there, even before we began to exist.”