The Practicing Stoic Quotes

“The first principle of practical Stoicism is this: we don’t react to events; we react to our judgments about them, and the judgments are up to us.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic

“Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and if they will not adapt to me, I adapt to them. Montaigne, Of Presumption (1580)”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Men are disturbed not by the things that happen but by their opinions about those things.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Look down from above on the countless gatherings and countless ceremonies, and every sort of voyage in storm and calm, and the disputes between those being born, living together, and dying. Think also of the life that was lived by others long ago, and that will be lived after you, and that is being lived now in other countries; think of how many don’t know your name at all, how many will quickly forget it, how many who – perhaps praising you now – will soon be finding fault. Realize that being remembered has no value, nor does your reputation, nor anything else at all. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.30”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“If any external thing causes you distress, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, but your own judgment about it. And this you have the power to eliminate now. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.47”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Our criticisms of others therefore have a side benefit. They provide an unintentional glimpse at what is ugliest within us.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“We can choose to have no opinion about a thing, and not to be troubled by it; for things themselves have no power of their own to affect our judgments.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“We always feel as though we react to things in the world; in fact we react to things in ourselves. And sometimes changing ourselves will be more effective and sensible than trying to change the world.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“You ask what the finest life span would be? To live until you reach wisdom.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“What I will teach you is the ability to become rich as speedily as possible. How excited you are to hear the news! And rightly so; I will lead you by a shortcut to the greatest wealth. . . . My dear Lucilius, not wanting something is just as good as having it. The important thing either way is the same – freedom from worry.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Most of the outcry is about money. It is this that wearies the courts, pits father against son, brews poisons, and gives swords to the legions and to cut-throats alike. . . . Because of it, nights resound with the quarrels of husbands and wives, crowds swarm to the tribunals of the magistrates, kings rage and plunder and overthrow states that have been built by the long labor of centuries, in order that they may search for gold and silver in the very ashes of cities.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“seeing how small our affairs look in the larger scheme of things, the Stoic means to induce a felt sense of humility and attraction to virtue. The method can be called intuitive because it isn’t a matter of argument. It’s more a question of showing and pointing, and expecting perceptions and adjustments to follow directly from a new point of view.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“When you see someone groveling before another man, or flattering him contrary to his own opinion, you can confidently say he is not free.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Both death and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, wealth and poverty – all these things happen equally to good men and bad, being neither noble nor shameful. Therefore they are neither good nor evil. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“What is it, then, that doesn’t offend your eyes in public but upsets them at home – other than your opinion, which in the one place is easygoing and tolerant, but at home is critical and always complaining?”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“If you would attain real freedom, you must be the slave of philosophy. Epicurus, quoted in Seneca, Epistles 8.7”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“They are all matters of opinion, and taken up voluntarily because it seems right to do so. This error, as the root of all evils, philosophy promises to eradicate utterly. Let us therefore devote ourselves to its cultivation and submit to being cured; for so long as these evils possess us, not only can we not be happy, we cannot even be right in our minds.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“We torment ourselves with fear of things that are more easily endured than worried about.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“An observation about our world that seems sharp and accurate gains a different kind of force when we see it expressed twenty centuries ago. The truth improves with age.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“This itself was a claim of the Stoics: that the stories and problems of humanity don’t change, but just put on new masks. The same can be said for the remedies.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Still you are indignant and complain, and you don’t understand that in all the evils to which you refer, there is really only one – that you are indignant and complain.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“why bad things happen to good people: they don’t. Genuinely bad things occur only in the mind,”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Seneca viewed time as the most valuable thing we own – really the only thing. Yet we guard it with none of the care we apply to our property. To lose some cash is alarming to anyone; to lose some time is alarming to few. None will be found willing to distribute their money to others; but among how many others do each of us distribute our lives! Men are tight-fisted in guarding their fortunes, but extravagant when it comes to wasting time – the one thing about which it is right to be greedy. Seneca, On the Shortness of Life 3.1 Our stupidity can be seen by this, that we only think we have bought those things for which we pay cash, while we regard as free those things for which we expend our very selves. Things that we would never be willing to buy if we had to give our house in exchange, or some attractive and productive estate, we are fully prepared to attain at the cost of anxiety, danger, lost honor, lost freedom, and lost time – for we treat nothing as cheaper than ourselves. Seneca, Epistles 42.7 All things, Lucilius, belong to others; only our time is our own. Nature has put us in possession of this one fleeting and uncertain property, from which anyone who wishes can eject us. And so great is the stupidity of mortals, that when they have obtained the cheapest and most unimportant things, easily replaced, they agree to be charged for them; yet no one considers himself indebted if he has taken up our time – though this is the one thing that even a grateful debtor cannot repay. Seneca, Epistles 1.3”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“treat how we talk to ourselves as a choice.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“Each man is as wretched as he has convinced himself he is.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“We must learn to put up with what we cannot avoid. Our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things – of diverse tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, sprightly and solemn. The musician who only loved some of them – what would he be able to do? He has to know how to make use of them all, and be able to mix them together. We must do the same with the good and the bad, which are of the same substance as our lives. Montaigne, Of Experience (1580)”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment. Johnson, The Rambler no. 71 (1750)”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“A man reaches the heights if he knows what makes him joyful, if he has not made his happiness depend on things not in his power. He will be troubled and unsure of himself so long as it is the hope of anything that spurs him on – even if it is not difficult to get, and even if his hopes have never disappointed him.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“If any external thing causes you distress, it is not the thing itself that troubles you, but your own judgment about it. And this you have the power to eliminate now. Marcus Aurelius,”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual

“we most desire what we do not or cannot have; that the pursuit of a thing is more pleasing than the possession of it; that possession of a good and familiarity with it tend to produce indifference or disgust; that we mismeasure the value of what we have, or don’t have, by comparing it to our expectations or to the holdings of others. In sum, we talk to ourselves about our desires in ways that are constantly misleading. The Stoics seek to give us more accurate things to say, as well as some advice about how to avoid or outwit our irrationalities.”
― Ward Farnsworth, The Practicing Stoic: A Philosophical User's Manual