Post: Stoic Quotes

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. ― Marcus Aurelius

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too. — Marcus Aurelius

Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune’s habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock. — Seneca

No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. — Epictetus

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man without trials. ―Seneca

It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult. — Seneca

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

Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish. – Marcus Aurelius

Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror, but it is not accomplished without sweat. ― Epictetus

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: ‘He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned’.” ― Epictetus

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. ― Seneca

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. — Seneca

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable. — Seneca

Anything or anyone capable of angering you becomes your master. — Epictetus

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. — Epictetus

Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents. — Epictetus

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

You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last. ― Seneca

Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time. The twining strands of fate wove both of them together. — Marcus Aurelius