Quilla · Stoic quotes
Stoic quotes to write about
128 passages from 8 writers, each one a prompt you can respond to. Pick one and start writing — no account needed.
Cleanthes
Epictetus
“Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Only the educated are free.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“You become what you give your attention to.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“No great thing is created suddenly.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“The true man is one who wants to be always at his best.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“If you want to be a philosopher, train yourself to be happy in everything.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Remember that your ruling faculty is unassailable; for it is not subject to external events, nor can it be controlled by anything outside itself.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Every habit and faculty is maintained and increased by the corresponding actions.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
“Keep yourself free from passion and hatred.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“Do not look for an ideal man, but rather for an ideal action.”
— Epictetus, Discourses
Heraclitus
Marcus Aurelius
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Understand that very little is needed to make a happy life.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“What is not good for the beehive cannot be good for the bee.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Confine yourself to the present.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Do not disturb yourself by imagining your whole life, but instead ask yourself, “What is there in this present moment that is intolerable?””
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Does anything pass into oblivion? No, not really. It is still right here with us.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not the thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like the wrongdoer.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Whatever happens to you has been ready for you since all eternity.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Plato
Plutarch
Seneca
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“He who is brave is free.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Ignorance is the cause of fear.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“No one can lead a happy life if he thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own purposes. You should live for the other person if you wish to live for yourself.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Life is long if you know how to use it.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“All cruelty springs from weakness.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“No man was ever wise by chance.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
— Seneca, De Ira
“What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“You want to live—but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying—and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“While we wait for life, life passes.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“There is no genius without a touch of madness.”
— Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind
“Regard a friend as loyal, and you will make them loyal.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“He who spares the wicked injures the good.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Many men, when they begin to grow old, prove this by no other evidence than by complaining of the waywardness of the young and the altered manners of men.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”
— Seneca, On Providence
“We learn not in the school, but in life.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Virtue is nothing else than right reason.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Life is never incomplete if it is an honorable one. At whatever point you leave life, if you leave it in the right way, it is a whole.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”
— Seneca, De Ira
“What fortune has made yours is not your own.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Limiting one's desires actually helps to cure one of fear. Cease to hope and you will cease to fear.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“It is quality rather than quantity that matters.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.”
— Seneca, De Providentia
“Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.”
— Seneca, De Providentia
“Most of what we dread is nothing, and what we most desire is nothing.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic