Quotations: Stoicism

The 31 quotations from the philosophers tied to this movement, each linked to the position it expresses.

Relation

Territory

Epictetus6 quotations

It is difficulties that show what men are.

On , their position:

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the opinions about things.

On , their position:

Of things, some are in our power, and others are not.

On , their position:

On no occasion call yourself a philosopher: be one.

On , their position:

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

On , their position:

The subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.

Marcus Aurelius10 quotations

All that is in tune with you, O Universe, is in tune with me: nothing that comes in season for you is too early or too late for me.

On , their position:

As Antoninus, my city and homeland is Rome; as a man, it is the world.

On , their position:

Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall meet the meddler, the ungrateful, the insolent; but none can bind me to what is base, nor make me angry at a kinsman.

On , their position:

Men seek retreats for themselves, in the country, by the sea, in the hills; but nowhere can a man withdraw into more quiet than into his own soul.

On , their position:

No one loses any other life than the one he now lives, nor lives any other than the one he now loses.

On , their position:

Pass out of life as a ripe olive falls, blessing the nature that produced it and giving thanks to the tree on which it grew.

On , their position:

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

On , their position:

What I am is only a little flesh, a little breath, and the ruling part.

On , their position:

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee either.

On , their position:

What stands in the way of action advances action. What blocks the road becomes the road.

On , their position:

Seneca15 quotations

A sacred spirit dwells within us, the observer and guardian of our good and our evil.

On , their position:

Cease to hope and you will cease to fear... the two march in step: anxiety follows hope.

On , their position:

Every day I plead my cause before myself... What fault of yours have you cured today?

On , their position:

He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery.

On , their position:

It is easier to banish dangerous passions than to govern them.

On , their position:

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.

On , their position:

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

On , their position:

Misfortune is virtue's opportunity.

On , their position:

No wise man punishes because a wrong has been done, but so that no wrong be done again.

On , their position:

The highest good is a mind that despises the gifts of chance and takes joy in virtue.

On the Happy Life, IV

On , their position:

The maker and ruler of all things himself wrote the decrees of fate, but he follows them: he ordained once, he obeys forever.

On , their position:

The wise man loses nothing through any loss, for he carries all his goods within himself.

On the Constancy of the Wise Man, V

On , their position:

We are members of one great body... nature made us kin, begetting us from the same principles and for the same ends.

On , their position:

Would you call it fate? You will not be wrong. Would you call it providence? You will speak rightly. Would you call it nature? You will not sin.

Natural Questions, II, 45

On , their position: