Stoic Quotes

Have you heard about stoicism, one of the 4 main philosophical principles? It’s ancient school of philosophy in Ancient Greece from the Hellenistic period (early 3rd century BC) that helps people overcome the challenges of daily life.

It is all about the quality of your thoughts: it’s realizing we can’t always be in complete control, especially when it comes to external events, but we can control how we react to them and then live a happy life.

In other words, it means you are in charge of the happiness of your life even when facing a hard time.

So, now that we understand better the power of the mind and if you’re ready to enhance your mindfulness practice, take a look at the best stoic quotes for a better life! Pick your favorite stoic quote to help you overcome difficult times and enjoy inner peace and a virtuous life.

Image shows an emoji with a calm, stoic face in front of a blue background. — If you want to follow the philosophy of stoicism, keep reading for the best quotes!

“Don’t hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.” — Epictetus
“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.” — Seneca
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” — Seneca
“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.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Be stoic: Just do the right thing. Just keep going.” — Maxime Lagacé
“To be stoic is not to be emotionless, but to remain unaffected by your emotions.” — James Pierce
“Learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.” — Marcus Aurelius
“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” – Epictetus
“That’s why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should.” — Epictetus
“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.”― Marcus Aurelius
“Warriors should suffer their pain silently.” — Erin Hunter
“Complaining does not work as a strategy. 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, The Last Lecture
“Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.”― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“I hear my silence talked of in every lane; The suppression of a cry is itself a cry of pain.”― Darshan Singh
“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: some things are within our control, and some things are not.” — Epictetus
“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius
“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” — Tony Robbins
“Don’t live in the past, don’t ponder about the future, stay at the PRESENT moment NOW… always.” — Mark Twain
“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” — Dale Carnegie
“Happiness doesn’t depend on what we have, but it does depend on how we feel toward what we have. We can be happy with little and miserable with much.” — William D. Hoard
“If happiness always depends on something expected in the future, we are chasing a will-o’-the-wisp that ever eludes our grasp, until the future, and ourselves, vanish into the abyss of death.” — Alan Watts
“You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” — Dale Carnegie
“There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.” — John Lennon
“There is as much greatness of mind in the owning of a good turn as in the doing of it; and we must no more force a requital out of season than be wanting in it.” —Seneca
“If you admit to having derived great pleasures, your duty is not to complain about what has been taken away but to be thankful for what you have been given…” — Seneca
“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The true felicity of life is to be free from anxieties and perturbations; to understand and do our duties to God and man, and to enjoy the present without any serious dependence on the future.” — Seneca
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When you give your items away, don’t keep the excess of your pride.” — Bremer Acosta
“Thoroughly convinced of the impossibility of his own suit, a high resolve constrained him not to injure that of another. This is a lover’s most stoical virtue, as the lack of it is a lover’s most venial sin.” — Thomas Hardy
“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
“Your fate has not been written until you pick up a pen.” — Dean Bokhari
“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” — Plato
“It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.” — 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
“You will find no one willing to share out his money; but to how many does each of us divide up his life!” — Seneca
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.” — Seneca
“But for me every omen is favourable for I want it to be so; for whatever may come about, it is within my power to derive benefit from it.” — Epictetus
“In each action that you undertake, consider what comes before and what follows after, and only then proceed to the action itself.” — Epictetus
“Mastery of reading and writing requires a master. Still more so life.” — Marcus Aurelius
“It can ruin your life only if it ruins your character. Otherwise it cannot harm you—inside or out.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.”— Robert Greene
“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” — Viktor Frankl
“Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on.” — Zeno of Citium
“Take a deep breath. Get present in the moment and ask yourself what is important this very second.” — Greg McKeown
“People in love often become edgy, dangerous. They lose their sense of perspective.” —Charles Bukowski, ‘Women.’
“Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.”— Alessandro Pertini.
“Maybe it’s good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.” — Stephen Chbosky, ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower.’
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious.”— Carl Sagan, ‘Cosmos.’
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl.
“If it does, you have failed to practice your virtues by going with the hype of pain.” — Tiisetso Maloma.
“To be evenminded is the greatest virtue.”— Heraclitus.
“Problems only exist in the human mind.”— Anthony de Mello.
“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” —James Allen.
“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.” — William Barclay.
“To be even-minded is the greatest virtue.” — Heraclitus
“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” — Voltaire
“Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life.” — Robert Greene
“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
“The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.” — Dalai Lama
“If you lose self-control everything will fall.” — John Wooden
“Move toward resistance and pain.” — Robert Greene
“Discomfort is a wise teacher.” — Caroline Myss
“No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.” — Alan Watts
“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.” — Epicurus
“The more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you will become comfortable.” — Conor McGregor
“You must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“We begin to lose our hesitation to do immoral things when we lose our hesitation to speak of them.” — Zeno
“I practice stoic philosophy. As a human being, you may have emotions, but these don’t need to affect your soul. The two are not one.” — Daphne Guinness
“Think progress, not perfection.” — Ryan Holiday
“You don’t control the situation, but you control what you think about it.” — Ryan Holiday
“Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.” — Napoleon Hill
“The most effective way to understand the dissonance between our thoughts about reality and reality itself is to consider how many times we’ve felt like our world is ending and how many times it actually has.” — Daniel V Chappell
“Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.” — Bertrand Russell
“A stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation…you have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.” — Seneca the Younger
“From forty to fifty a man is at heart either a stoic or a satyr.” — Arthur Wing Pinero
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.” — D. H. Lawrence
“Let a stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It made Costis wonder for the first time just how much the stoic man really wants to hide when he unsuccessfully pretends not to be in pain.” — Megan Whalen Turner
“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
“Stoicism is not so much an ethic as it is a paradoxical recipe for happiness.” — Paul Veyne
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” — Rumi
“No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato
“A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.” — Naval Ravikant
“Success is based off of your willingness to work your ass off no matter what obstacles are in your way.” — David Goggins
“A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean.” — Will Durant
“It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential. The closer to the source, the less wastage there is.” — Bruce Lee
“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” — James Allen
“The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say. Or think, or do. Only what you do.” — Marcus Aurelius
“A Bad Feeling Is A Commotion Of The Mind Repugnant To Reason And Against Nature.” — Zeno
“No Man Can Escape His Destiny, The Next Inquiry Being How He May Best Live The Time That He Has To Live.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.“ — Plato
“To love only what happens, what was destined. No greater harmony.”— Marcus Aurelius
“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
“Happiness is not found in living a safe and secure life, but in taking risks and facing challenges.” — Diogenes
“It is the upright mind that holds true sovereignty. — Seneca
“Without courage, the disciplined pursuit of less is just lip service. — Greg McKeown
“Common man’s patience will bring him more happiness than common man’s power.” — Amit Kalantri
“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions—not outside.” — Marcus Aurelius
“Once anger starts carrying us away, it is hard to get back again into a healthy condition.” —[Seneca, A1.8]
“Having a peaceful and undisturbed mind, dependent on only yourself.” — [Epictetus D4.4]
“If any of these things you studied and learned prove useful to you in your actions, be joyful.” —[Epictetus D4.4]
“It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.” — Seneca
“Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity.” — Robert Greene
“Keep your intention pure. Emotions will try to distract you. So keep going. That’s the cure.” — Maxime Lagacé
“Life without love would be a strange thing. But don’t be surprised if you get burned.” — Maxime Lagacé
“Welcome if it comes. Let go if it goes. Chase nothing. Cling to nothing. Remain unconcerned.” — Anonymous
“Stoicism is designed to be medicine for the soul.” — Ryan Holiday
“Stoicism and silence does not serve us nor our communities, only the forces of things as they are.” — Audre Lorde
“The mob is the mother of tyrants.” — Diogenes
“You could not step twice into the same river.” — Heraclitus
“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we speak.” — Zeno
“Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.” — Cleanthes
“Let your desires be ruled by reason.” — Cicero
“Only by exhibiting actions in harmony with the sound words which he has received will anyone be helped by philosophy.” — Musonius Rufus
“Humanity must seek what is NOT simple and obvious using the simple and obvious.” — Musonius Rufus
“That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.” — Socrates
“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.” — Seneca
“An aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression it is sober and reserved. Its general attitude is stoic.” — Johan Huizinga
“I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.” — Cato
“Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in.” — Shannon L. Alder
“Only the educated are free.” — Epictetus
“As a stoic I must despise injury or, rather, I must not feel it, must not be affected by it so that it cannot violate the freedom of my soul.” — Alexandra David-Neel
“He has the most who is content with the least.” — Diogenes
“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One.” — Marcus Aurelius
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The best answer to anger is silence.” — Marcus Aurelius
“The great law of nature is that it never stops. There is no end.” — Ryan Holiday
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” — Marcus Aurelius
“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
“Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” — Epictetus
“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
“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.” — Seneca
It is not that we have a short life, but that we waste a lot of it — Seneca
The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. — Seneca

Thousands More Quotes For Any Occasion

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