Stoic Quotes

“Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“You will never see me surrender, never see me cry, but you will often see me walk away. Turn around and just leave, without looking back.”
― Charlotte Eriksson, Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: in search for The Great Perhaps

“The willing are led by fate, the reluctant are dragged.”
― Cleanthes of Assos, Hymn to Zeus

“When you pursue wisdom, you will soon realize how much you don’t know. Your knowledge will be incomplete, but continually developing through your curiosity.

Arrogance blocks new information from coming in. When you’re conceited, you’ll resist change, and struggle to preserve your fixed image. Don’t fall into smug idleness, used to comfort. Challenge what you think you know, not caring if other people see you as a fool.

Progress daily in your own uncertainty.”
― Bremer Acosta, Stoic Practice

“We all have problems. Or rather, everyone has at least one thing that they regard as a problem.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Being a stoic does not mean being a robot. Being a stoic means remaining calm both at the height of pleasure and the depths of misery.”
― Abhijit Naskar, 7 Billion Gods: Humans Above All

“Death devours not only those who have been cooked by old age; it also feasts on those who are half-cooked and even those who are raw.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal than the elderly.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Progress daily in your own uncertainty. Live in awareness of the questions.”
― Bremer Acosta, Stoic Practice

“You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgement, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“In the first place, sensation (aisthesis) is a corporeal process which we have in common with animals, and in which the impression of an exterior object is transmitted to the soul. By means of this process, an image (phantasia) of the object is produced in the soul, or more precisely in the guiding part (hegemonikon) of the soul”
― Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“[Philosophers] have come to envy the philologist and the mathematician, and they have taken over all the inessential elements in those studies—with the result that they know more about devoting care and attention to their speech than about devoting such attention to their lives.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Whereas a belief in an absurd world arises out of the fundamental disharmony of a person searching for meaning in an apparently meaninglessness universe, an existential nihilist displays impassive intellectual stoicism towards their eventual mortality while embracing a passionate artistic commitment to munity against the underlying syndrome of insignificance and confusion encasing life.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Once there was and once there was not a devout, God-fearing man who lived his entire life according to stoic principles. He died on his fortieth birthday and woke up floating in nothing. Now, mind you, floating in nothing was comforting, light-less, airless, like a mother’s womb. This man was grateful.

But then he decided he would love to have sturdy ground beneath his feet, so he would feel more solid himself. Lo and behold, he was standing on earth. He knew it to be earth, for he knew the feel of it.

Yet he wanted to see. I desire light, he thought, and light appeared. I want sunlight, not any light, and at night it shall be moonlight. His desires were granted. Let there be grass. I love the feel of grass beneath my feet. And so it was. I no longer wish to be naked. Only robes of the finest silk must touch my skin. And shelter, I need a grand palace whose entrance has double-sided stairs, and the floors must be marble and the carpets Persian. And food, the finest of food. His breakfast was English; his midmorning snack French. His lunch was Chinese. His afternoon tea was Indian. His supper was Italian, and his late-night snack was Lebanese. Libation? He had the best of wines, of course, and champagne. And company, the finest of company. He demanded poets and writers, thinkers and philosophers, hakawatis and musicians, fools and clowns.

And then he desired sex.

He asked for light-skinned women and dark-skinned, blondes and brunettes, Chinese, South Asian, African, Scandinavian. He asked for them singly and two at a time, and in the evenings he had orgies. He asked for younger girls, after which he asked for older women, just to try. The he tried men, muscular men, skinny men. Then boys. Then boys and girls together.

Then he got bored. He tried sex with food. Boys with Chinese, girls with Indian. Redheads with ice cream. Then he tried sex with company. He fucked the poet. Everybody fucked the poet.

But again he got bored. The days were endless. Coming up with new ideas became tiring and tiresome. Every desire he could ever think of was satisfied.

He had had enough. He walked out of his house, looked up at the glorious sky, and said, “Dear God. I thank You for Your abundance, but I cannot stand it here anymore. I would rather be anywhere else. I would rather be in hell.”

And the booming voice from above replied, “And where do you think you are?”
― Rabih Alameddine

“Life is neither a glorious highlight reel nor a monstrous tragedy. Every day is a good day to live and a good day to die. Every day is also an apt time to learn and express joy and love for the entire natural world. Each day is an apt time to make contact with other people and express empathy for the entire world. Each day is perfect to accept with indifference all aspects of being.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Reflect that nothing merits admiration except the
spirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“It takes courage to speak or react way slower than you think.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Death is the release of an organism from the prison of life.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“She didn't shed a tear. Angels don't cry.”
― Hiroshi Sakurazaka, All You Need Is Kill 2

“When you give your items away, don’t keep the excess of your pride.”
― Bremer Acosta, Stoic Practice

“Sometimes we have no luxury of choice. We must do certain things for survival. That should not stop us from doing the things we love.”
― Malebo Sephodi

“Suffering adds spice to life.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“An action is at least a billion times less difficult to choose than a reaction.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Any port in a storm.”
― Michael J. Tougias, Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do

“Freedom? That’s easy. It’s in your choices. Happiness? That’s easy. It’s in your choices. Respect of your peers? That too is in the choices you make.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living

“Stoical' is the best word to describe her reaction to these compliments, Emma putting up with them as of they were one of my unfortunate foibles.”
― Carol Lee, To Die For

“I’m really wishing Titan were still on that list of options.”

“That’s waiting for yesterday, sweetheart.”
― James S.A. Corey, Persepolis Rising

“as people very often place intrinsic value on things outside of their direct control, and doing so undoubtedly contributes to human suffering in many ways.”
― Donald Robertson, Stoicism and the Art of Happiness: Practical Wisdom for Everyday Life

“The worst that can happen to anyone will happen to everyone.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We can always choose not what we see but how we look at what we see.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana