Stoic Quotes
30 quotes
Stoic
Practical philosophy for resilience, virtue, and inner peace
30 Quotes
Sometimes in life we are tested, not to show our weaknesses, but to discover our strengths
— Letters to Lucilius, paraphrase of themes in Letter 13
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
— Fragments, 18
Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.
— Enchiridion, Chapter 8
You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength
— Meditations, Book 12, Section 36
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has
— Enchiridion, Section 19
If you wish to be a writer, write
— Discourses, Book 2, Chapter 17
The best revenge is not to be like your enemy
— Meditations, Book VI, 6
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants
— Discourses, Book 4, Chapter 9
Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it
— Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 4
Difficulties are things that show a person what they are
— Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 24
Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them
— Letters to Lucilius
What upsets people is not things themselves, but their judgments about these things
— Enchiridion, Section 5
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality
— Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter 13
Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed
— Meditations, Book 4, Section 7
If you wish to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid
— Enchiridion 13
How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life
— Meditations, Book 8, Section 46
It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable
— Letters from a Stoic, Letter 78
To be calm is the highest achievement of the self
— The Stoic Mind: Chapter XII
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems
— Epictetus Discourses, Book II, Chapter 18, 24
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne
— Meditations, Book 5, Section 6
Apply yourself to thinking through difficulties—hard times can be teachers, not masters
— Letters to Lucilius, Letter 78
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do
— Discourses, Book III
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid
— Enchiridion, Section 13
To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.
— Meditations, Book XI
It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgments concerning them
— Enchiridion, Chapter 5
No man is free who is not master of himself
— Discourses, Book 2, Chapter 10
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
— Letters from a Stoic, Letter II
To remind oneself every morning that we are to meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable
— Meditations, Book II
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
— Meditations, Book VIII
If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable
— Epistle LXXI (Letters to Lucilius)