Quotes About Stoicism

But the world is what it is and won't be bargained with.

You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile engagement. Your pride is not involved. The best lesson you can teach an irritating gnat is to consign it to oblivion by ignoring it.

Cicero smiled at us. 'The art of life is to deal with problems as they arise, rather than destory one's spirit by worrying about them too far in advance. Especially tonight.

Guardarle rencor al destino no conduce a nada; las cosas suceden sin razón ni ritmo alguno, no se puede decir nada más. Ir en contra de ese destino es como censurar el humo del fuego o el mismo viento, excepto cargar con aquello que te ha tocado en suerte y seguir adelante.

If you must mount the gallows, give a jest to the crowd, a coin the hangman, and make the drop with a smile on your lips.

Quiet minds can't be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

Also on my desk is a copy of Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, a truly priceless work, which was purchased by my dad for $1.95).

philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and some of the work of Seneca.

How can you treat death so lightly? she asks. Because it happens, he replies. It is inevitable. I do not mourn the falling of a leaf or the breaking of a wave. I do not sorrow for a shooting star as it burns itself up in the atmosphere. Why should I?

To endure such suffering required stoicism reminiscent of the ancient Romans, so Washington had his favorite play, Addison's Cato, the story of a self-sacrificing Roman statesman, staged at Valley Forge to buck up his weary men.

At first, Rockefeller swallowed his anger and stoically endured this injustice.

Even as a young man, Rockefeller was extremely composed in a crisis. In this respect, he was a natural leader: The more agitated others became, the calmer he grew.

Su profesión le había enseñado a esconder el miedo, a mostrarse impasible ante las tragedias. El lado negro del mundo, sus penalidades y su miseria formaban parte del trabajo cotidiano.

Acceptance is the heart of the stoic approach: you can lessen emotional pain if you accept that the "worst" may happen and focus only on what you can do to respond

What do you feel? I've never been asked this question once. None of us has. We aren't supposed to feel. We're British.

We are English, and I expect you to behave as such. No more crying.

It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgements, and these I can carry with me... These alone are my own and cannot be taken away.

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

Maintaining equanimity in misery is called penance (tapa).

I'm feeling miserable . . . There was no self-pity in his tone, no appeal for sympathy ? only the angry matter-of-factness of a Stoic who has finally grown sick of the long farce of impassibility and is resentfully blurting out the truth.

Of that imagined stoicism, that theoretical courage, not a trace was left.

As recently as a week ago, in the Director's office, he had imagined himself courageously resisting, stoically accepting suffering without a word. The Director's threats had actually elated him, made him feel larger than life.

Since we are sinking, let us sink. We can die but once.

There had been a long article about the resurgence of stoicism in a newspaper he had picked up in the coffee bar—some of it, he recalled, underlined in red ink by an unknown reader. That happened to many of the newspapers and magazines there—somebody was furtively, and selectively, underlining certain things in red.