Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they blind.
EpictetusRead
Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the fear of death, rather than death itself, is the root of many human problems.
Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, argues that human suffering, moral failures, and cowardice are primarily driven by the fear of death rather than death itself. This perspective invites individuals to confront their fears to overcome the anxieties and weaknesses that impede a virtuous life.
Themes
FearDeathCouragePhilosophyLife
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming fears.
More from Epictetus
All quotes βLearn to distinguish what you can and can't control. Within our control are our own opinions, aspirations, desires and the things that repel us. They are directly subject to our influence.
EpictetusRead
Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.
EpictetusRead
Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control. Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? Lameness may impede your legs. But you are not merely your legs. Your will is bigger than your legs. Your will needn't be affected by an incident unless you let it.
EpictetusRead
The people have a right to the truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
EpictetusRead
Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things, and thence proceed to greater.
EpictetusRead
Similar quotes
When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again
Warren W. WiersbeRead
Nothing is confused except the mind.
Rene MagritteRead
And didn't it always go like that--body parts not lining up the way you wanted them to, all of it a little bit off, as if the world itself were an animated sequence of longing and envy and self-hatred and grandiosity and failure and success, a strange and endless cartoon loop that you couldn't stop watching, because, despite all you knew by now, it was still so interesting.
Meg WolitzerRead
America is the only country ever founded on the printed word.
Marshall McluhanRead
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
Albert EinsteinRead
The natural mind is ever prone to reason, when we ought to believe; to be at work, when we ought to be quiet; to go our own way, when we ought steadily to walk on in God's ways, however trying to nature.
George MullerRead