56 Stoic Quotes - Marcus Aurelius, Seneca & Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius
- You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.
- The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
- Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
- Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
- When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
- The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.
- Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together.
- Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.
- If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
- Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.
- See also: Wisdom Quotes for Insight and Understanding
Seneca
- We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
- It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
- Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.
- Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
- He who is brave is free.
- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
- As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
- True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
- No man was ever wise by chance.
- See also: Life Quotes for Perspective and Meaning
Epictetus
- It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
- Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
- First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- Only the educated are free.
- Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
- He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
- No great thing is created suddenly.
- Seek not the good in external things; seek it in yourselves.
- Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
- If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
- See also: Peace Quotes for Calm and Harmony
On Adversity and Resilience
- The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
- Fire tests gold, and adversity tests the brave.
- A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
- He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man.
- It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself for difficult times.
- Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed—and you haven't been.
- The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.
- What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
On Death and Mortality
- Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life.
- You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.
- It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
- Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.
- Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.
- We are but dying men and women dealing with dying men and women.
On Control and Acceptance
- Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
- Some things are within our power, while others are not.
- Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen.
- The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control.
- We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
- Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity.
On Virtue and Character
- Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
- Character is fate.
- No man is free who is not master of himself.
- The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
- Associate with people who are likely to improve you.
- To be even-minded is the greatest virtue.