Quotes About Stoicism

Stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

To stand up straight — not straightened

striid andWthdraw into yourself. Our master-reason asks no more than to act justly, and thereby to achieve calm.

Everything is only for a day, both that which remembers and that which is remembered

Soon you'll be ashes or bones. A mere name at most - and even that is just a sound, an echo. The things we want in life are empty, stale, trivial.

And why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice!

Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, I have been harmed. Take away the complaint, I have been harmed, and the harm is taken away.   That which does not make a man worse than he was, also does not make his life worse, nor does it harm him either from without or from within.

So here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune,' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.

No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good.

Suppose that a god announced that you were going to die tomorrow "or the day after." Unless you were a complete coward you wouldn't kick up a fuss about which day it was—what difference could it make? Now recognize that the difference between years from now and tomorrow is just as small.

The Stoic discovers the model for his virtuous conduct in studying the laws of nature; just as each object, plant, and animal serves its fated role in the larger order, so the human strives to steer his actions in accordance with his unique power, reason, his inner mirror of the logos that governs the universe.

This you must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how this is related to that, and what kind of a part it is of what kind of a whole; and that there is no one who hinders you from always doing and saying the things that conform to the nature of which you are a part.

So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What

Don't be overheard complaining ... not even to yourself.

To grieve or be angry about or fear what happens to you is to be a fugitive from the law of nature.

Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.

A little flesh, a little breath, and a Reason to rule all – that is myself.

It's unfortunate that this has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it.

So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

Do not waste what remains of your life in speculating about your neighbours, unless with a view to some mutual benefit. To wonder what so-and-so is doing and why, or what he is saying, or thinking, or scheming – in a word, anything that distracts you from fidelity to the Ruler within you – means a loss of opportunity for some other task.

And so accept everything that happens, even if it is disagreeable, because it leads to this, to the health of the universe and to the prosperity and felicity of Zeus

Why should any of these things that happen externally, so much distract thee? Give thyself leisure to learn some good thing, and cease roving and wandering to and fro. Thou must also take heed of another kind of wandering, for they are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.

All men die, but that not all men die whining