Stoic

Explore 58 quotes by Stoics

Whatever befalls you was prepared for you beforehand from eternity, and the thread of causes was spinning from everlasting both your existence and this which befalls you.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Fate Free will

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 10.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 10.

A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Overcoming adversity Adversity Preparation Skill

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

For it is impossible for any one to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.

Epictetus

Discourses

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Topic

Lack of curiosity Learning Arrogance

Author

Epictetus

Source

Discourses

Medium

Lecture

Language

Greek

Time

108 100s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Epictetus. Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί, Epiktētou diatribai [The Discourses of Epictetus]. c. 108, bk 2, ch 17.

Current Citation

Epictetus. "The Discourses." Discourses and Other Writings, edited and translated by Robert Dobbin. Penguin Classics, 2008, bk. 2, ch. 17.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, for it requires that we should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Living well Adaptability Improvisation Life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 7.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 7.

All that is in harmony for you, my Universe, is in harmony with me as well. Nothing that comes at the right time for you is too early or too late for me. Everything is fruit to me that your seasons bring, Nature. All things come of you, have their being in you, and return to you.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Man and the universe Man and nature

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

The best ideas are common property.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Ideas Intellectual property

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

Seneca the Younger

More information about this quote

Topic

Adversity

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Moral Essays

Medium

Essay

Language

Latin

Time

64 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. "On Providence." Moral Essays. 1st century, ch. 5, sect. 10.

Current Citation

Seneca the Younger. "On Providence." Dialogues and Essays, translated by John Davie. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 5, sect. 10.

Mark how fleeting and paltry is the estate of man-yesterday in embryo, tomorrow a mummy or ashes. So for the hairsbreadth of time assigned to thee, live rationally, and part with life cheerfully, as drops the ripe olive, extolling the season that bore it and the tree that matured it.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Ephemeral nature of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.

Epictetus

The Enchiridion

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Topic

Happiness Letting go

Author

Epictetus

Source

The Enchiridion

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

135 130s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Epictetus. Ἐγχειρίδιον Ἐπικτήτου, Enkheirídion Epiktḗtou [Enchiridion of Epictetus]. c. 125 CE, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Epictetus. Enchiridion, translated by George Long. Dover Publications, 2004, ch. 1.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Acquisitiveness Desire Materialism Attachment (Buddhism)

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Genocide Anti-war War

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.

Seneca the Younger

More information about this quote

Topic

Simple living Materialism

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Moral Letters to Lucilius

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Remember that you ought to behave in life as you should at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.

Epictetus

Quoted in The Enchiridion, by Arrian

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Topic

Patience

Speaker

Epictetus

Author

Arrian

Source

The Enchiridion

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

125 120s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Epictetus. Ἐγχειρίδιον Ἐπικτήτου, Enkheirídion Epiktḗtou [Enchiridion of Epictetus]. c. 125 CE, ch. 15.

Current Citation

Epictetus. Enchiridion, translated by George Long. Dover Publications, 2004, ch. 15.

Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Length of life What we can control

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Were I a nightingale, I would sing like a nightingale; were I a swan, like a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being, therefore I must sing hymns of praise to God.

Epictetus

Discourses

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Topic

Praising God Fulfilling one's nature

Author

Epictetus

Source

Discourses

Medium

Lecture

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

108 100s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Epictetus. Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί, Epiktētou diatribai [The Discourses of Epictetus]. c. 108, bk. 1, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Epictetus. "The Discourses." Discourses and Other Writings, edited and translated by Robert Dobbin. Penguin Classics, 2008, bk. 1, ch. 16.

Uncomplicate yourself.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Simplicity

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

Latin

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Resilience Inner strength

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 5.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 5.

It is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Loving one's enemies Loving others Love

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 7.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 7.

If not becoming, don’t do it. If not true, don’t say it. Let these be your fixed principles.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Lying Personal integrity Morality

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Orders and commands

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 12.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 12.

Life is long if you know how to use it.

Seneca the Younger

On the Shortness of Life

More information about this quote

Topic

Living life to the fullest Living well The good life Life

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

On the Shortness of Life

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

49 40s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. De Brevitate Vitae [On The Shortness of Life]. c. 49 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca the Younger. "On the Shortness of Life." On the Shortness of Life: Life is Long If You Know How to Use It, translated by C. D. N. Costa. Penguin Books, 2005.