Stoics Quotes

“We Stoics are not subjects of a despot: each of us lays claim to his own freedom.”

— Seneca

No choice maxims - we Stoics don't practice that kind of window dressing.

— Seneca the Younger

Spartans, stoics, heroes, saints and gods use short and positive speech.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“philosophers”—the ancient Stoics—even if they’d never read them.* They had the”

— Ryan Holiday

“According to the Stoics, the circle of control contains just one thing: YOUR MIND.”

— Ryan Holiday

Anger, the Stoics said, was a short madness.

— Philip Sidney

“Some people avoid thinking deeply in public, only because they are afraid of coming across as suicidal.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Above all, the Stoics sought wisdom, a condition that I myself hope to achieve after I stop wrecking and burning things.”

— James Morrow

The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other…

— Diogenes Laertius

“We love being mentally strong, but we hate situations that allow us to put our mental strength to good use.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and many others speak of dying for the law, for one’s country, one’s friends, one’s family, even for…

— N.T. Wright

According to the Stoics, all vice was resolvable into folly: according to the Christian principle, it is all the effect of weakness.

— John Quincy Adams

“Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal…

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

A thought experiment courtesy of the Stoics. If you are tired of everything you possess, imagine that you have lost all these…

— Jenny Offill

“The areas of great interest to the Stoics all make an appearance here: virtue, mortality, emotions, self-awareness, fortitude, right action, problem solving,…

— Ryan Holiday

“The world might rage around, yet within the Stoic’s mind, a tranquil sea prevails. The Stoic remains anchored, not carried away by…

— Kevin L. Michel

The Stoics thought that a fundamental insight into human life is that some things are up to us and others are not,…

— Massimo Pigliucci

“His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all…

— Terry Pratchett

The Stoics appear during a huge time of constant wars and real political strife. And it became very popular, I think, because…

— Derren Brown

The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find your rest." And that is not true. Others say, "Go…

— Blaise Pascal

“For the Stoics, then, our judgments about the world are all that we can control, but also all that we need to…

— Oliver Burkeman

Human nature, if healthy, demands excitement; and if it does not obtain its thrilling excitement in the right way, it will seek…

— Oswald Chambers

“The image of the Zen philosopher is the monk up in the green, quiet hills, or in a beautiful temple on some…

— Ryan Holiday

“Consider when, on a voyage, your ship is anchored; if you go on shore to get water you may along the way…

— Epictetus

“And here lies the essential between Stoicism and the modern-day 'cult of optimism.' For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was…

— Oliver Burkeman

Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics throughout their history ; his attitude at the time of his trial, his refusal…

— Bertrand Russell

“And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am…

— G.K. Chesterton

“The Stoics define wisdom to be conducted by reason, and folly nothing else but the being hurried by passion, lest our life…

— Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

“But if God and immortality be repudiated, what is left? That is the question usually thrown at the atheist's head. The orthodox…

— Julian Huxley

“Great individuals find a way to transform weakness into strength. It’s a rather amazing and even touching feat. They took what should…

— Ryan Holiday

“In order to get over the ethical difficulties presented by the naive naturalism of many parts of those Scriptures, in the divine…

— Thomas Henry Huxley

“Death devours not only those who have been cooked by old age; it also feasts on those who are half-cooked and even…

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Stoics follow each other like sheep. Wanting glorification for their nature as to say they think they're cosmological leaders over nature.

— Jeremy Limn

“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of…

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We all have problems. Or rather, everyone has at least one thing that they regard as a problem.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The Stoics, as we have seen, thought tranquility was worth pursuing, and the tranquility they sought, it will be remembered, is a…

— William B. Irvine

“The Stoics, by contrast, believed that we are essentially social creatures, with a ‘natural affection’ and ‘affinity’ for all people. This forms…

— Donald J. Robertson