Quotes About Philosophy

Whatever is enough is abundant in the eyes of virtue.

Geef me de moed om alles te accepteren wat niet in mijn vermogen ligt, de kracht om alles te veranderen wat wel in mijn vermogen ligt, en de wijsheid om tussen die twee te onderscheiden.

Goodness exists independently of our conception of it. The good is out there and it always has been out there, even before we began to exist.

For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.

Show me someone untroubled with disturbing thoughts about illness, danger, death, exile or loss of reputation. By all the gods, I want to see a Stoic!

So-and-so's son died.' ('The question'). Answer: 'Since it's nothing he can control, it isn't bad.

Externals include the body and its members, as well as material goods. If you grow attached to any of them as if they were your own, you will incur the penalties prescribed for a thief.

I will define him simply as someone set on becoming a god rather than a man.

These inferences are invalid: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better than you," and "I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better than you." But the following inferences are more cogent: "I am richer than you, therefore my property is better than yours," or "I am more eloquent than you, therefore my diction is better than yours." But you yourself are neither property nor diction.

death is nothing to fear in itself, or Socrates would have run from it.

What are you? A human being. If you think of yourself as a unit apart, then it is in accordance with your nature to live to old age, to be rich, and be healthy. But if your view of yourself involves being part of a whole, circumstances may make it right for you to be sick, go on a dangerous journey, endure poverty, even die before your time. Don't complain.

It is better to die poor, while free from fear and grief, than to live surrounded by riches and filled with anxiety.

Continually remind yourself that you are a mortal being, and someday will die.

For what else is tragedy than the perturbations ([Greek: pathae]) of men who value externals exhibited in this kind of poetry?

Wisdom's seat is higher; she trains not the hands, but is mistress of our minds.

Por esto la mayor y primera tarea del filósofo es poner a prueba las representaciones y juzgarlas y no aceptar ninguna sin haberla puesto a prueba

For my part, I can say, 'bring what challenge you please and I will turn it to good account: bring illness, death, poverty, slander, a judgement of death: they will all be converted to advantage by my wand of Hermes.

Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought.

Do not say of anything "I have lost it," but rather, "I have given it back.

Stoicism doesn't mean repressing emotion and shunning pleasure, I learned, but, in essence, focusing on what is within our power and letting go of everything we can't control.

Do you think freedom is something good?' 'The greatest good of all.' 'Can anyone in possession of the greatest good be unhappy or unfortunate?' 'No.

And then we'll be emulating Socrates,* once we're able to write hymns of praise in prison.

But if you try to avoid what you cannot control—sickness, poverty, death—you will inflict useless mental suffering upon yourself.

If you have a favorite cup, remember that it is only a cup that you prefer—if it is broken, you can bear it.