Stoicism

“The end may be defined as living in agreement with nature, which is the same as living virtuously.”

“Lead me, O Zeus, and thou, O Destiny, wherever you have appointed me to go, and I will follow without hesitation; but if I grow unwilling, I shall follow all the same.”

“The good is a disposition of the soul, and it is the same as virtue; the virtue of the soul is what is genuinely good, and everything else is indifferent.”

“He who studies philosophy ought to train his body to be able to follow the mind, and to endure hardship, since his body is the instrument of his mind, and the mind cannot act well through an instrument that is weak.”

“Nothing is truly expedient which is not at the same time honorable; and nothing is honorable which is not at the same time expedient.”

“He is free who lives as he wishes, whom no one can compel, whom no one can hinder, whom no one can force to do anything against his will.”

“Remember how long you have been putting off these things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods and not used it. Now it is time to realize that you are a part of the universe, that you exist for a short time, and that all things pass away quickly.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Associate with those who will make you better. Welcome those whom you yourself can make better.”

“The cylinder rolls and the cone spins: the same push, different natures — and so it is with fate and the person: the occasion is given, and the response is the nature's own. The responsibility is the response.”

“Logic is the science of argument and the foundation of the philosophical life: the person who cannot reason cannot live well, for every act of the wise person is an act of reasoning.”

“For friendship is the one thing concerning which all men are of one mind, both those who have served the state and those who have pursued learning: all believe that without friendship life is no life at all. It is the gift of the gods to human life, and nothing else is so great or so lasting.”

“True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions.”

“Old age is the natural completion of life, and it is not a decline but a harvest: the fruit of the years is the wisdom of the soul, and the person who has lived well finds in age the tranquility that the turbulent years could not give.”

“Philosophy is the medicine of the soul, and the sorrow that is understood is the sorrow that can be borne: the grief is the judgment, and the judgment can be examined — the consolation is in the understanding.”

“The commonwealth is the property of the people: the people is the multitude bound together by the agreement on what is right and the community of interest — and the republic that has lost the justice has lost the name.”

“Philosophy is the medicine of the soul; its aid is to be sought, not from heaven, but from our own efforts, and the soul is healed by philosophy just as the body is healed by medicine.”

“Most glorious of the immortals, many-named, ever all-powerful, Zeus, ruler of nature, governing all things by law — to you it is fitting that all mortals turn, for we are your offspring, and alone among mortal creatures that live and move we have the likeness of your reason.”

“I am slow, but I am sure: the person who is patient in the pursuit of wisdom carries the school, and the steady step, repeated daily, reaches the goal that the swift never see.”

“The logos is the artisan fire, working methodically toward the generation of the cosmos: the fire that does not merely burn but shapes, and the reason that is the heart of the world.”

“The work is the tuition of the wisdom: I drew water by night to study by day, and the labor that carried the body carried the school — the work is the price, and the wisdom is the purchase.”

“The angry person is punished by the anger itself: the passion is the first harm, and the person who is carried away by anger has already suffered the injury they fear from others.”

“The body can be hurt, but the soul is untouched: the harm that reaches the body ends at the body, and the person who knows this is free — for no one can injure what they cannot reach.”

“Welcome the criticism, for the honest critic is the examiner of the soul: the person who corrects you gives you the gift of the discovered error, and the person who flatters you leaves you with it.”

“When the hour comes, depart quietly: death is the natural completion, and the person who has lived in agreement with nature does not cling to the banquet when the dinner is done.”

“The art of living is the art of wanting: want what is up to you, and you will never want in vain; want what is not up to you, and you will be the slave of the want.”

“Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will be serene.”

“The will is the one thing that is truly yours: it cannot be compelled, it cannot be hindered, and its freedom is the freedom that no tyrant, no fortune, and no death can take away.”

“What is not your own is not your concern: if you think that what others think of you is up to you, you will be their slave, and no one is master of what others think. Release the craving for approval, and you will be free.”

“Philosophy is not the profession of principles but the daily practice: the progress of the philosopher is not in the words he speaks but in the work of the day — in what he does, and in what he no longer does.”

“The slave is equal to the king, if he is wise; and the king is a slave, if he is foolish. For freedom is not the absence of chains but the mastery of the soul, and no one can enslave the person who is master of himself.”

“It is not the things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about them: death is nothing terrible — else it would have appeared so to Socrates — but the judgment that death is terrible is the terrible thing.”

“Some things are up to us and some are not. Up to us are opinion, impulse, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is our own doing; not up to us are body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, whatever is not our own doing.”

“Life is the contest, and the true athlete trains for virtue: the obstacles are the opponents, the day is the arena, and the prize is not the crown but the character that the contest builds.”

“Keep watch on your impressions: the mind is entered through them, and the person who guards the gate has the citadel. The impression is not yours to choose, but the assent is yours — and the assent is the act of the free.”

“The philosopher is not the one who knows the doctrines but the one who lives them: the life is the proof, and the life well lived is the last word that no argument can answer.”

“You are a fragment of the divine reason: the mind within you is the mind of the whole, and the person who has understood the kinship lives as a citizen of the world, at home in the order that governs all things.”

“The Meditations is not a treatise but a private journal: a man talking to himself, practicing the discipline in the only way that remains — the writing that is the record of the daily work of the mind.”

“Ego is the enemy: the self-importance that blocks the progress, the pride that precedes the fall, and the voice that tells you you are done when you have only begun.”

“The obstacle is the way: what stands in the way becomes the way, and the impediment to action advances action. The obstacle is not the enemy of the progress but its material.”

“Negative visualization is the most valuable of all Stoic exercises: by contemplating the loss of what we have, we are reminded of the importance of enjoying it while we have it — and the gratitude is the joy.”

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I am going to do what I was born for, the things I came into the world to do?”

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

“Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom yourself to consider that the nature of the universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them. For everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.”

“You may leave life at any moment. Have this freedom in your mind, in your acts, in your thoughts. Let death be present to your thoughts, and let it teach you to live: not in fear, but in the fullness of the present.”

“Be like the headland against which the waves break and break: it stands firm, and the waters settle at its feet. Be like the olive tree: when it is beaten, it gives its fruit. The hardship is the beating, and the virtue is the fruit.”

“Expect nothing from the world, and you will not be disappointed by it: the person who has released the expectation has released the disappointment, and the person who has released the fear has released the slavery.”

“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength: the freedom of the inner life is the one freedom that no one can take.”

“The present is the gift: the air you breathe, the food you eat, the people you love — all are given, and the person who has learned the gratitude for the given has learned the beginning of the wisdom.”

“The wrong that others do harms the doer, not the soul of the wronged: no one can harm your character but yourself, and the injury that reaches the body ends at the body.”

“Be kind, but not weak: the gentleness of the strong is the highest strength, and the person who can be gentle without bending has mastered both the art of love and the art of firmness.”

“The life needs few things: the simple meal, the honest work, the love of the few — and the person who has understood the few has found the freedom that the many could not give.”

“The mind is undisturbed by the impressions unless it assents to them: wipe out the impression, stop the pulling of the strings, and the mind is its own master.”

“You can retreat into yourself at any moment: the mind is the citadel that no one can storm, and the person who has fortified the inner life has found the refuge that no enemy, no fortune, and no calamity can take.”

“When you arise in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and I know that this wrongdoer before me is my kin — not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and a portion of the same divine reason. Therefore none of them can hurt me.”

“Confine yourself to the present: for the past is gone and the future is not yours, and the person who lives in the present lives the whole of life, because life is nothing but the present, lived well.”

“The sun shines on all without distinction, giving light to the world without asking what it illumines: be like the sun — the reason within you is the light that illumines the life, without distinction and without reserve.”

“Act always for the common good: what benefits the hive benefits the bee, and the person who serves the whole is served by the whole.”

“The things you are pursuing are nothing but smoke: the fame that you crave will be forgotten in a generation, and the opinions of posterity are no more than the opinions of the present — nothing to you.”

“Fatalism about outcomes, commitment to action: give everything to the effort, release the outcome, and the freedom is in the release.”

“The day has two boundaries, and the discipline has two anchors: the morning prepares the day, and the evening reviews it — the rhythm of the practice that makes the philosophy a life.”

“The daily remembrance of death is the discipline of life: the person who has rehearsed the end is free of the fear of it, and the person who is free of the fear is free to live.”

“The resilience is the trained judgment: the person who has practiced the examination of the thoughts can reframe the adversity, and the person who can reframe the adversity cannot be broken by it.”

“Exile is not the loss of the country but the removal of the obstacles: the philosopher is at home wherever the reason is, and the person who carries the soul carries the country.”

“The philosopher eats to live, not lives to eat: the simple table is the training ground of temperance, and the person who has mastered the appetite has mastered the self.”

“Women have received from the gods the same reasoning power as men: the virtues are the same, and the philosophy that trains the reason belongs to them equally. The person who would be wise must learn, whether man or woman.”

“Virtue is the only thing that is truly up to us: the modern Stoic practices the ancient disciplines in the service of the character, and the character is the one possession that no fortune can take.”

“The judgment is the target: the Stoic correction of the judgment is the ancestor of the cognitive therapy, and the person who has learned to examine the thoughts has learned the beginning of the freedom.”

“The best remedy for anger is delay: the first impulse is not the passion, and the passion, if it is not fed, dies of itself.”

“The wise person cannot be conquered: the soul that has found its ground is not moved by the assaults of fortune, and the constancy of the inner life is the victory that no enemy can take.”

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficient measure to allow the accomplishment of the greatest things, if it were well invested. The final hour is not the only hour; each day is a life in miniature, and the person who has lived each day as a complete life has already died well.”

“Expectation is the thief of the present: the person who lives in the future never lives at all, and the person who has released the expectation has recovered the life.”

“The true friend is the one who can be trusted with the soul: the friendship of the wise is grounded in the shared love of the good, and it is the one friendship that fortune cannot touch.”

“Dry your tears, but do not harden your heart: the grief of the wise is felt without being mastered — the tears are human, and the despair is the judgment that can be corrected.”

“The joy of the wise is the constant delight in the good: it does not come and go with fortune, but abides in the soul that has found the one good that cannot be lost.”

“Old age is not the decline but the harvest: the years have grown the wisdom, and the person who has lived well finds in the later years the fruit that the earlier years could not yet bear.”

“The books are the companions of the wise: the conversation with the great minds never ends, and the person who reads the wise has gathered the friends that no time and no fortune can take away.”

“Reason is the distinctive gift of the human being: the life lived by reason is the life in agreement with nature, and the person who has perfected the reason has perfected the nature.”

“The hardship is the training of the wise: the suffering that is endured builds the strength that the ease cannot give, and the person who has been tested by fortune is the person who can face anything.”

“Look within: the goods of the soul are within you, and they are the only goods that fortune cannot touch. The person who has found them has found the one wealth that cannot be taken away.”

“The present is the only time that is truly ours: the past is gone, the future is uncertain, and the person who possesses the present possesses their life. Seize the day, and hold it as your own.”

“The soul should be always at rest and settled, serene and unruffled, holding itself in its own possession: this is what it is to be tranquil, and this is the reward of the well-governed life.”

“Virtue is the only good: the one thing that is in our power, the one possession that cannot be taken, and the one wealth that makes the person rich whatever fortune brings.”

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

“The dichotomy of control is the foundation of the modern practice: the discipline that returns the attention to what is ours, and the freedom that comes from the release of what is not.”

“The life speaks louder than the voice: the character is the argument, and the person who would persuade must first be — the teaching is lived before it is spoken.”

“You have done well, Fortune, to drive me thus to philosophy. (On being told that he had lost everything in a shipwreck, Zeno replied that he had lost nothing, for philosophy had found him.)”

“We have two ears and one mouth, to listen twice as much as we speak: the silence is the discipline of the wise, and the person who has learned to listen has learned the beginning of the wisdom.”

“The wise are citizens of the world: the common reason makes all human beings kin, and the city of the wise is the city that has no walls — the cosmopolis.”