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
It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The true insult comes from our own perception, not from others' actions or words.
Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, teaches that insults and offenses are not determined by the actions of others, such as reviling or striking you, but rather by how you interpret these actions. It emphasizes the importance of mindset and personal responsibility in determining our emotional responses, suggesting that our opinions hold the power to define our experience of insult.
Themes
PerceptionInsultMindsetStoicismReaction
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion about emotional resilience, you might use this quote to highlight how our opinions shape our reactions.
More from Epictetus
All quotes →Learn 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 inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
As every student in Philosophy 101 learns, nothing can force me to believe that anyone except me is conscious. This power to deny that other people have feelings is not just an academic exercise but an all-too-common vice, as we see in the long history of human cruelty.
Steven PinkerRead
We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
The medical argument for animal testing doesn't stand up. Even if it did, I don't think we should kill other species. We think we're so much better; I'm not sure we are. I tell people, We've beaten into submission every animal on the face of the Earth, so we are the clear winners of whatever battle is going on between the species. Couldn't we be generous? I really do think it's time to get nice. No need to keep beating up on them. I think we've got to show that we're kind.
Paul MccartneyRead
The ego does not, cannot live in the present, because the present is real and the ego is false - they never meet.
RajneeshRead
If we go on to cast a look at the fate of these World-Historical persons, whose vocation it was to be the agents of the World-Spirit, we shall find it to have been no happy one. They attained no calm enjoyment; their whole life was labour and trouble; their whole nature was nought else but their master—passion. When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. They die early, like Alexander; they are murdered, like Caesar.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelRead