I heard this week a great interpretation of the quote from Epictetus. 
'You have two ears and one mouth.  Use them proportionately.'

This past week in yoga classes I taught around the theme of 'darkness' and what it can ultimately teach us.  Instead of running in the opposite direction of dark times, we are encouraged to sit with those difficulties and to use them as opportunities to grow. 
Think of the lotus and how it originates in the muck and mire at the bottom of a pond.  In our wildest dreams we wouldn't imagine a beautiful flower could emerge on the surface of the water....and yet it does.

Here are a few quotes, which you may also  find of interest:

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.”
― Og Mandino
 “Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety, after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly.”
― Hazrat Ali Ibn Abu-Talib A.S
 

We learn fear and hatred from our ego.
We learn forgiveness and love from our heart,
the healer of our ego.
          
​Roxana Jones