Stoic quotes, with their real sources

“Some things are within our power, while others are not.”

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”

“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.”

“Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in thy power.”

“If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.”

“Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting.”

“To have whatsoever he wishes is in no man’s power; it is in his power not to wish for what he has not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to him.”

“Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”

“Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.”

“He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery.”

“Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.”

“The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.”

“It is with life as it is with a play — it matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is.”

“No man loses any other life than this which he now lives, nor lives any other than this which he now loses.”

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

“Set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands.”

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

“Every man lives only this present time, which is an indivisible point, and that all the rest of his life is either past or it is uncertain.”

“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

“He suffers more than is necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”

“It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.”

“What does it avail to run out to meet your suffering? You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives; so look forward meanwhile to better things.”

“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.”

“Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life.”

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”

“Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.”

“The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's, in respect of this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets which are sudden and unexpected.”

“Show me someone who is ill and yet happy, in danger and yet happy, dying and yet happy, exiled and yet happy.”

“If a thing is difficult to be accomplished by thyself, do not think that it is impossible for man.”

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

“Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then, or bear with them.”

“It is peculiar to man to love even those who do wrong.”

“Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not.”

“To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.”

“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

“If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.”

“A thatched roof once covered free men; under marble and gold dwells slavery.”

“Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast.”

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?””

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

“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

“Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must learn first, and then strengthen your learning by action.”

“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

“On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, and do not speak much among the uninstructed about theorems (philosophical rules, precepts); but do that which follows from them.”