Stoic Quotes

Meaning and History

Stoicism, a Hellenistic philosophy, thrived in Ancient Greece and Rome. Stoics believed that practicing virtue leads to eudaimonia, or a well-lived life. They identified this path through practicing four virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance (moderation), and justice, while living in harmony with nature. Zeno of Citium founded Stoicism around 300 BC in the ancient Agora of Athens.

Alongside Aristotle's ethics, Stoicism is a major pillar of virtue ethics. Stoics, such as Seneca and Epictetus, taught that "virtue is the only good," and external factors like health and wealth are neither good nor bad but provide material for virtue. They believed that maintaining a will aligned with nature (prohairesis) was crucial and that destructive emotions stemmed from judgment errors. Hence, they emphasized that behavior, not words, best reflects one's philosophy.

Stoicism remained influential in the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, with notable adherents like Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It declined after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD but saw revivals during the Renaissance (Neostoicism) and in modern times.

History

The term "Stoicism" comes from the Stoa Poikile, or "painted porch," in Athens where Zeno and his followers discussed their ideas. Initially called Zenonism, the name changed to avoid a cult of personality around its founder, who was not considered perfectly wise.

Zeno's ideas evolved from the Cynics, particularly through Crates of Thebes, a disciple of Socrates. Chrysippus, who succeeded Cleanthes, significantly shaped Stoicism, making it a leading philosophy among the Hellenistic and Roman elite. As noted by Gilbert Murray, nearly all of Alexander the Great's successors professed Stoicism.

Scholars divide Stoicism into three phases: the Early Stoa (Zeno to Antipater), the Middle Stoa (including Panaetius and Posidonius), and the Late Stoa (Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius). No complete works survive from the Early and Middle Stoa; only texts from the Late Stoa remain.

Jason Lewis Saunders. "Stoicism". Britannica. Archived from the original on 28 June 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2022.

Sharpe, Matthew. "Stoic Virtue Ethics". Handbook of Virtue Ethics, 2013, 28–41. Archived 13 November 2018.

John Sellars. Stoicism, 2006, p. 32.

Becker, Lawrence C. (2001). A New Stoicism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400822447. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2017.

Becker, Lawrence (2003). A History of Western Ethics. New York: Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-0415968256.

Robertson, Donald (2018). Stoicism and the Art of Happiness. Great Britain: John Murray.

"Chrysippus | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.

Amos, H. (1982). These Were the Greeks. Chester Springs: Dufour Editions. ISBN 978-0802312754. OCLC 9048254.

Gilbert Murray, The Stoic Philosophy (1915), p. 25. In Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1946).

Sedley, D. (2003). "The School, from Zeno to Arius Didymus." In: B. Inwood (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. Cambridge University Press.

A.A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy, p. 115.

Stoic Quotes

Seneca

1. “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
2. “True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”
3. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
4. “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
5. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
6. “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
7. “He who fears death will never do anything worth of a man who is alive.”
8. “Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
9. “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
10. “Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”

Epictetus

1. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
2. “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
3. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
4. “Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
5. “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
6. “No man is free who is not master of himself.”
7. “He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
8. “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
9. “Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
10. “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

Marcus Aurelius

1. “You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
2. “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
3. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
4. “If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.”
5. “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
6. “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”
7. “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love...”
8. “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.”
9. “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
10. “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”