Stoic Quotes

“If one accomplishes some good though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains; if one does something dishonourable with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the dishonour remains.”
― Musonius Rufus, That One Should Disdain Hardships: The Teachings of a Roman Stoic

“Or is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of all those applauding hands. The people who praise us- how capricious they all are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region in which it all takes place. The whole earth a point in space- and most of it uninhabited. How many people there will be to admire you, and who they are.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: A New Translation

“Well, when do we act like sheep: when we act for the sake of the belly, or of our sex-organs, or at random, or in a filthy fashion, or without due consideration, to what level have we degenerated?

To the level of sheep.”
― Epictetus, Epictetus. The Discourses as Reported By Arrian. Vol. I. Books 1 and 2. With an English Translation By W. A. Oldfather

“Like an attachment to a sparrow: we glimpse it and it’s gone.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: A New Translation

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waist a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficient generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we know it was passing”
― Seneca

“Take it to mind, not to heart.”
― Nate Hamon, Terra Dark

“Show by a cheerful look that you don't need the help or comfort of others. Standing up - not propped up.”
― Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations

“We do not need to lose people or things to appreciate them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Sometimes the only thing you can do is accept the fact that there is nothing you can do.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We are often blind to the fact that our situation is not as bad as we think, until it gets worse.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Though you should be going to live three thousand years, and as many times ten thousand years, still remember that no man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses. The longest and shortest are thus brought to the same.

For the present is the same to all, though that which perishes is not the same; and so that which is lost appears to be a mere moment. For a man cannot lose either the past or the future, for what a man has not, how can any one take this from him?”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: A New Translation

“It is foolish to expect a fool to act wisely.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Learning how to live would take most people at least three lifetimes.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We are hurried, not by what is happening, but by what we are desiring.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.”
― Seneca

“Avoid talking often and excessively about your accomplishments and dangers, for however much you enjoy recounting your dangers, it's not so pleasant for others to hear about your affairs.”
― Epictetus, Discourses: Complete Books 1 - 4 - Adapted for the Contemporary Reader

“And that was my first clue that Dennis was of superior mental health. He had no reason to try and mask his awkwardness with a stoic face, no need to pretend to be blasé.”
― Augusten Burroughs, Magical Thinking: True Stories

“It usually takes maturity in a child, and immaturity in an adult, not to be on speaking terms with someone.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Stoicism is a mild form of pessimism … sprinkled with optimism.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“You cannot love what you have become, yet hate what you have overcome.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“For sheep don't throw up the grass to show shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digest their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk.”
― Epictetus, THE ART OF LIVING

“Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrists like a Stoic while taking a bath, and when they found her, afloat in her pink pool, with the yellow eyes of someone possessed and her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquillity that they had stood mesmerized.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides

“Show by a cheerful look that you don't need the help or comfort of others. Standing up - not propped up.”
― Marcus Aruelius

“One of the main goals and effects of stoicism is to stop an adult from being a crybaby.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I resist stoically. No cat is going to boss me around this morning.”
― Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

“It is sometimes foolish to assume that someone is wise, or vice versa.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We are all talented at coming up with plausible excuses.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. Only an ingrate would fail to see that these great architects of venerable thoughts were born for us and have designed a way of life for us.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Daily Dad: 366 Meditations on Parenting, Love and Raising Great Kids

“Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. Only an ingrate would fail to see that these great architects of venerable thoughts were born for us and have designed a way of life for us.”
― Ryan Holiday Stephen Hanselman, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living