Quotes About Stoicism

Manual para una vida feliz

God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.

I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.

If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.

Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!

when things seem to have reached that stage, merely say "I won't play any longer", and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting.

Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.

If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.

Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.

We suffer not from the events in our lives but from our judgement about them.

Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.

Those who are well constituted in the body endure both heat and cold: and so those who are well constituted in the soul endure both anger and grief and excessive joy and the other affects.

Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.

Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason.

For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death.

Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.

Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess.

Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives to them.

You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole—your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size but sense. So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals?

Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.