Quotes About Stoicism

Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from everlasting.

Victrix causa deis placuit sed Victa Caton.

Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding.

To no man make yourself a boon companion: Your joy will be less but less will be your grief

The gods sustain and guide all their works.

Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?

To expect an impossibility is madness.

It is not right to vex ourselves at things, for they care not about it.

Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more.

All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.

Death and pain are not frightening, it's the fear of pain and death we need to fear. Which is why we praise the poet who wrote, 'Death is not fearful, but dying like a coward is.'

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

No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.

Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and how nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated.

Set yourself in motion, if it is in your power, and do not look about you to see if anyone will observe it; nor yet expect Plato's Republic: but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter.

To be sure, external things of whatever kind require skill in their use, but we must not grow attached to them; whatever they are, they should only serve for us to show how skilled we are in our handling of them.

Waste no time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

You can pass your life in an equable flow of happiness if you can follow the right way and think and act in the right way.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

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.

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.

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

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

The act of dying is also one of the acts of life.