Stoicism for Inner Peace Quotes

“Are you naturally entitled, then, to a good father? No, only to a father.” ​Epictetus, Enchiridion, 30”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“What happens around us is not up to us. The position we take towards the outside world is up to us. Epictetus emphasizes that our focus should lie on the things within our control, while maintaining a contempt for the things not in our control.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Life is short. That’s why it’s important to channel our life energy towards essential and important things and leave unimportant things be.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Not demanding the world to be nice The world is full of people that are selfish, insolent, arrogant, ignorant, cruel, conniving, and downright mean. This may sound pessimistic, but as far as I’ve observed, it’s the truth. We cannot expect that people will be nice to us all the time – because they aren’t.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“The third way refers to the human obsession with the past and future. This obsession is understandable. The past probably left a huge impression on us (and may have generated some valuable life lessons), while the future is where we’re all headed. The problem, however, is that some people live entirely outside that place where life is happening: the present moment.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“The world is completely out of control. Life comes, life goes. Empires rise, empires fall. And it’s just a matter of time that planet earth vanishes because the Sun swallows it. The house we live in, the money we have in the bank, the people we love, they’re all going down the drain someday. From this perspective, we may see that it’s kind of crazy to spend our lives attaching ourselves (sometimes painfully) to the world around us. The world changes all the time. The things we attach ourselves to never last. This is yet another reason why it’s better to let go of them.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“What people throw in your direction is not up to you. Getting offended, however, is a choice.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“When another blames you or hates you, or when men say anything injurious about you, approach their poor souls, penetrate within, and see what kind of men they are. You will discover that there is no reason to be concerned that these men have this or that opinion about you.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Staying calm during adversity, and letting go of the results, may come across as indifferent. However, this tranquility helps us to act in agreement with reason, instead of being overwhelmed by emotion. This probably leads to making better choices which increases the chances of recovery.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“All this comes down to seeing things as they are, as much as possible, and doing the right thing based on rationality instead of fear.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“No matter what happens, keep this in mind: It’s the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses too. Nothing new at all. Familiar, transient.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Worse than war is the very fear of war.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Change and flux constantly remake the world, just as the incessant progression of time remakes eternity. We find ourselves in a river. Which of the things around us should we value when none of them can offer a firm foothold? Like an attachment to a sparrow: we glimpse it and it’s gone.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“When we deal with our fellow humans, we’ll undoubtedly be confronted with people that are selfish, irrational, overly emotional, mean, violent, greedy, hostile, and intolerant. Some people are in full panic mode and go overboard when it comes to taking measures to protect themselves.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Another solution is forgiveness, which works better when it comes to long-term (cold) anger. When we forgive, we can finally permit ourselves to let go of the grudges that we’ve been carrying around for so long.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“But Seneca compared anger to drunkenness; in a battle, angry fighters have no control over their movements, like drunks.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“You can stick a knife in someone and pull it out, but no matter how often you apologize, the scar will be there forever.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“..for it is equally devoid of self-control, regardless of decorum, forgetful of kinship, obstinately engrossed in whatever it begins to do, deaf to reason and advice, excited by trifling causes, awkward at perceiving what is true and just, and very like a falling rock which breaks itself to pieces upon the very thing which it crushes.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“So, ‘letting go’ in this case means letting go of what we don’t have. Sure, we have our thoughts about the past and the future, but what are thoughts but the fabrication of the mind? They don’t represent the world around us. They’re mere illusions, fantasies, calculations, memories. The mind is a great tool.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Desire breeds aversion and aversion breeds desire.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Control freaks simply cannot handle insecurity. They are stuck in the dreadful absurdity of trying to figure out what cannot be figured out, and with repetitive attempts they keep trying nonetheless.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“The problem of the anxious part of ourselves is that it’s a control freak. I can attest to that.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“..that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it, all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity, but to love it.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“That indifference is power, the Stoics know very well. Life is short. That’s why it’s important to channel our life energy towards essential and important things and leave unimportant things be.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Marcus Aurelius repeatedly states that life is best lived in accordance with nature or “as nature requires”.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“The rule of thumb is that, if we just focus on our path, stop feeling entitled to the blessings of others, and be grateful for what we have, there’s no reason to be envious of anything.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“So, even though emotions are part of our human nature, they are a sign of bad reasoning and could be overcome by getting a clear understanding of how life works.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“When we embrace whatever happens, what could go wrong? Nothing. And amor fati creates just that. When things can’t go wrong, there’s nothing to worry about. When there’s nothing to worry about, the fear of the future won’t sap our energy and make us feel miserable. By unconditionally embracing our destiny, we have nothing to fear.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.4”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace

“Let’s look at some fundamental beliefs of Stoicism. The Stoics of ancient times observed that from the human perspective two categories can be distinguished: things that we do not control and things we do control. A most basic and clear explanation of this dichotomy of control can be found in the Enchiridion, which is a compilation of sayings by Epictetus that were written down by his pupil Arrian. Epictetus was another significant Stoic philosopher that presents us with a fundamental tenet of Stoicism, which is that most things are simply not up to us. Think about exterior things like our friends, our colleagues, our intimate partners, the economy, the number of likes on Facebook, things that politicians say, or the deterioration of our bodies. Do we actually control these things? Yes, we can influence them. But, even if we do everything right, the economy can still collapse, our money can be taken from us, and our intimate partners can cheat on us or die.”
― Einzelgänger, Stoicism for Inner Peace