Discover the wisdom of famous stoic philosophers with these brilliant stoic quotes!
As my favorite quote by James Pierce explains, “To be stoic is not to be emotionless, but to remain unaffected by your emotions”.
So simple yet so difficult to achieve.
If you’re interested in stoic philosophy, check out this collection of the most famous stoic quotes by famous stoic philosophers from ancient times to modern-day thinkers.
Let’s start!
Top 10 Most Influential Stoic Quotes
1. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” — Plato
2. “Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” — Zeno Of Citium
3. “The day a man becomes superior to pleasure, he will also be superior to pain.” — Seneca
4. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” — James Allen
5. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” — Heraclitus
6. “We’re never unhappy until we remember why we’re supposed to be unhappy.” — Daniel V Chappell
7. “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca
8. “To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony. ” — Marcus Aurelius
9. “Control your perceptions. Direct your actions properly. Willingly accept what’s outside your control.” — Ryan Holiday
10. “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” — Seneca
See also: 150 Wise Quotes Of Perfection To Propel You To Excellence
Inspirational Quotes On Stoicism
1. “Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity.” — Robert Greene
2. “Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.” — Alessandro Pertini
3. “The more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you will become comfortable.” — Conor McGregor
4. “Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” — Seneca
5. “A bad feeling is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason, and against nature.” — Zeno
6. “Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind.” — Zen proverb
7. “A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desires into undertaking.” — Taleb Nassim Nicholas
8. “He who sweats more in training, bleeds less in war.” — Greek Proverb
9. “You must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
10. “The phrase that I use the most to myself in my head is one word: accept.” — Naval Ravikant
See also: 130 Wise Acceptance Quotes To Help You Grow And Prosper
11. “It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise, it cannot harm you — inside or out.” — Marcus Aurelius
12. “We begin to lose our hesitation to do immoral things when we lose our hesitation to speak of them.” — Zeno
13. “We should not, like sheep, follow the herd of creatures in front of us, making our way where others go, not where we ought to go.” — Seneca
14. “The good and the bad occur at all times and will keep happening. We can become lost if we go with the hype of ‘good and bad’ every time.” — Tiisetso Maloma
15. “We should discipline ourselves in small things, and from these progress to things of great value.” — Marcus Aurelius
See also: 150 Discipline Quotes To Unlock Your Potential And Success
16. “To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its worldview and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel.” — Julian Baggini
17. “Man is mostly a collection of emotions, most of which he would do better not to be feeling.” — Neel Burton
18. “If I should die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do. Yo can’t expect more from life.” — Bruce Lee
19. “As a human being, you may have emotions, but these don’t need to affect your soul. The two are not one.” — Daphne Guinness
20. “Entrust everything willingly to the gods, and then make your way through life – no one’s master and no one’s slave.” — Marcus Aurelius
See also: 70 Best Trust God Quotes To Boost Your Spiritual Growth
Stoic Quotes By Marcus Aurelius
1. “Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense.” — Marcus Aurelius
2. “Consider at what price you sell your integrity, but please, for God’s sake, don’t sell it cheap.” — Marcus Aurelius
3. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” — Marcus Aurelius
4. “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.” — Marcus Aurelius
5. “Life is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil.” — Marcus Aurelius
6. “Choose not to be harmed – and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed – and you haven’t been.” — Marcus Aurelius
7. “Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature.” — Marcus Aurelius
8. “Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?” — Marcus Aurelius
9. “Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside.” — Marcus Aurelius
10. “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.” — Marcus Aurelius
11. “If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.” — Marcus Aurelius
12. “The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” — Marcus Aurelius
13. “You have power over your mind – not external events. Realize this and you will have strength.” — Marcus Aurelius
14. “Consider that before long you will be nobody and nowhere, nor will any of the things exist that you now see, nor any of those who are now living.” — Marcus Aurelius
15. “External thoughts are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.” — Marcus Aurelius
See also: 70 Marcus Aurelius Quotes To Change Your Outlook On Life
Seneca Quotes
1. “You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.” — Seneca
2. “To be always fortunate and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature.” — Seneca
3. “And if you want to know why all this running away cannot help you, the answer is simply this: you are running away in your own company.” — Seneca
4. “Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.” — Seneca
5. “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” — Seneca
6. “If what you have seems insufficient to you, then though you possess the world, you will yet be miserable.” — Seneca
7. “If you live in harmony with nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich.” — Seneca
8. “What is harder than a rock? What is softer than water? Yet hard rocks are hollowed out by soft water?” — Seneca
See also: 260 Gripping Water Captions For Instagram To Inspire Change
9. “You should live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.” — Seneca
10. “He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.” — Seneca
11. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” — Seneca
12. “The whole future lies in uncertainty; live immediately.” — Seneca
13. “Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.” — Seneca
14. “As long as you live, keep learning how to live to err is human, but to persist in the mistake is diabolical.” — Seneca
15. “This is our big mistake: to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.” — Seneca
See also: 150 Deep Dark Quotes About Life, Death, Pain & Love
Epictetus Quotes
1. “It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.” — Epictetus
2. “Curb your desire—don’t set your heart on so many things and you will get what you need.” — Epictetus
3. “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.” — Epictetus
4. “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.” — Epictetus
5. “Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” — Epictetus
6. “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus
7. “When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.” — Epictetus
8. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.” — Epictetus
9. “Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.” — Epictetus
10. “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?“ — Epictetus
See also: 140 Epictetus Quotes That Are Really Epic
Control Your Ego Quotes
1. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao Tzu
2. “Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life.” — Robert Greene
3. “Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.” — Epictetus
4. “We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.” — Randy Pausch
See also: 170 Genius Goal Achievement Quotes To Help You Succeed
5. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor Frankl
6. “If anyone can refute me – show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective – I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone.” — Marcus Aurelius
7. “What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.” — Maya Angelou
8. “There is no better way to grow as a person than to do something you hate every day.” — David Goggins
9. “In short, know this: Human lives are brief and trivial. Yesterday a blob of semen; tomorrow embalming fluid, ash.” — Marcus Aurelius
10. “Our happiness is not to be found in the judgments of others or in things outside of our control.” — Arianna Huffington
11. “When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.” — Epictetus
12. “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we speak.” — Zeno of Citium
13. “Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever.” — Marcus Aurelius
See also: 120 Best Spiritual Universe Quotes To Contemplate Life
14. “I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.” — Cato
15. “Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.” — Pythagoras
16. “The basic philosophy of stoicism is that you have nothing real external to your own consciousness, that the only thing real is in fact your consciousness.” — Roger Avary
17. “All cruelty springs from weakness.” — Seneca
18. “Let your desires be ruled by reason.” — Cicero
19. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” ― Seneca
20. “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” — Viktor Frankl
See also: 100 Quotes On Life Struggles To Help You Fight Better
Final Words
Living in harmony with nature, being peaceful and unshakable by any exterior events is all that stoicism is about.
I hope you enjoyed this collection of stoic quotes.
Have a nice day!
Living in harmony with nature, being peaceful and unshakable by any exterior events is all that stoicism is about
I hope you enjoyed this collection of stoic quotes.
Have a nice day