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Stoic quotes are everywhere, on mugs, in feeds and on gym walls. A lot of them aren’t quite what the Stoics wrote, and some were never written by a Stoic at all.
Every quote below is checked against a public-domain translation, with the book and section it comes from so you can read it in context. Each one comes with a plain-English meaning and a question to write about.
The best Stoic quotes come from three writers: Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus. The most quoted include “Some things are in our control and others not” (Epictetus), “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” (Seneca) and “The universe is transformation: life is opinion” (Marcus Aurelius).
Pick a Stoic quote to journal on
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”
Journal on it: Who might test your patience today, and how do you want to respond?
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Quick takeaways
- 23 Stoic quotes: 15 from Marcus Aurelius, 5 from Seneca and 3 from Epictetus.
- Each is quoted from a public-domain translation: George Long for Marcus Aurelius, Richard Mott Gummere for Seneca and Elizabeth Carter for Epictetus.
- Every quote links to the full text, so you can read the lines around it.
- Many popular Stoic quotes online are loose paraphrases. The originals are often longer and more careful.
- A quote is most useful when you answer it. Each one here comes with a question to write about.
What is the most famous Stoic quote?
The most famous Stoic quote is probably the opening line of Epictetus’s Enchiridion: “Some things are in our control and others not.” It sums up the core of Stoicism, which is to focus your effort on your own judgments and actions and accept the rest. Most other Stoic quotes are variations on that idea.
Close behind are Seneca’s line about suffering in imagination and Marcus Aurelius’s reminder to be like a promontory that stands firm while the waves break. All three are below, in full, with where to find them.
Marcus Aurelius quotes from Meditations
Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD. His Meditations are private notes to himself about patience, death, other people and doing his duty. These 15 quotes come from George Long’s 1862 translation, which uses “thou” and “thee” but reads clearly once you get used to it.
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1
Expect difficult people so they don’t knock you off course. Marcus goes on to say they act this way out of ignorance, which makes them easier to forgive.
Journal on it: Who might test your patience today, and how do you want to respond?
“For the present is the only thing of which a man can be deprived, if it is true that this is the only thing which he has.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.14
The past is gone and the future hasn’t arrived, so the present moment is all anyone actually holds.
Journal on it: What are you worrying about losing that you don’t have yet?
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.3
Everything changes, and much of how life feels depends on how you judge what happens.
Journal on it: What’s one judgment about today you could hold more loosely?
“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.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.17
Time is limited, so don’t postpone being the person you mean to be.
Journal on it: What are you putting off as if you had unlimited time?
“Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.49
Trouble keeps arriving; the aim is to stay steady while it does.
Journal on it: What’s breaking against you this week, and what helps you stand firm?
“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present—I am rising to the work of a human being.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.1
Even an emperor struggled to get out of bed. He reminded himself what the day was for.
Journal on it: What work are you getting up for tomorrow?
“That which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.20
An obstacle can become part of the path. This is the line behind the modern phrase “the obstacle is the way.”
Journal on it: What’s in your way right now, and what could it teach you?
“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.6
Refusing to copy someone’s bad behavior is a better answer than revenge.
Journal on it: Who has wronged you, and what would it look like not to become like them?
“Take care that thou art not made into a Caesar, that thou art not dyed with this dye.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.30
A reminder from an emperor to himself: don’t let power or status change who you are.
Journal on it: Where has a role or title started to change how you act?
“Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.8
You’ll meet future problems with the same mind you use today, so there’s no need to fight them now.
Journal on it: Which future worry could you leave until it actually arrives?
“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.67
A good life needs far less than we tend to assume.
Journal on it: List the very little you need for a good day.
“Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.36
Take troubles one at a time instead of piling your whole future onto today.
Journal on it: What’s the one thing you need to handle today?
“If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.47
The event and your reading of the event are two different things, and only the second is yours to change.
Journal on it: What’s bothering you, and what judgment have you added to it?
“A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.50
Deal with annoyances simply and move on, without asking why they exist.
Journal on it: What small annoyance could you just throw away?
“No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.16
Stop theorizing about being good and do it.
Journal on it: What would being the person you describe look like today?
Seneca quotes from the Letters to Lucilius
Seneca was a Roman statesman and writer who died in 65 AD. His Letters to Lucilius are practical advice to a younger friend about time, fear, friendship and reading. These five quotes come from Richard Mott Gummere’s translation, published between 1917 and 1925.
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 1
Putting things off doesn’t pause time.
Journal on it: What have you been postponing, and what’s the first small step?
“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 1
Almost everything can be taken away. Time is the one thing we hold, and we give it away easily.
Journal on it: Where did your time go this week, and where did you want it to go?
“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 2
Being able to sit with yourself, without constant distraction, is a sign of a settled mind.
Journal on it: When were you last alone with your thoughts without reaching for your phone?
“Everywhere means nowhere.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 2
Seneca is talking about reading too many books too quickly. Going deep beats skimming everything.
Journal on it: What could you go deeper on instead of wider?
“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 13
Most of what we dread never happens, but we suffer it in advance anyway.
Journal on it: What are you dreading, and how likely is it really?
Epictetus quotes from the Enchiridion
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic teacher who was born into slavery and later taught in Rome and Nicopolis. The Enchiridion, or handbook, is a short summary of his teaching compiled by his student Arrian. These three quotes come from Elizabeth Carter’s 18th-century translation.
“Some things are in our control and others not.”
Epictetus, Enchiridion 1
The opening line of the Enchiridion, and the core Stoic idea: sort what’s yours to act on from what isn’t.
Journal on it: List what’s bothering you in two columns: in my control, not in my control.
“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”
Epictetus, Enchiridion 5
Your beliefs about an event do more to upset you than the event itself.
Journal on it: What story are you telling yourself about something that happened?
“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
Epictetus, Enchiridion 8
Accept what happens rather than insisting it should be different.
Journal on it: What are you still wishing had gone differently?
Which famous Stoic quotes are misquoted?
Several of the most shared Stoic quotes are shortened or reworded. Seneca’s line on suffering in imagination drops its first half and the word “often” in most versions. “The obstacle is the way” is a modern summary of Meditations 5.20, not a line Marcus wrote. Checking a quote against a translation is the only way to be sure.
- “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” The full line in Gummere’s translation is longer and more careful: “There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” The Stoic Handbook sets out the Latin and what the short version drops.
- “The obstacle is the way.” A modern phrase, made popular by Ryan Holiday’s book of that name. The idea is Marcus Aurelius’s, from Meditations 5.20, but the wording isn’t.
- “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” A looser rendering of Meditations 4.3. In Long’s translation it’s five words shorter: “The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”
If a quote online has no book or section attached, treat it with suspicion. The Stoic texts are free to read, so a real quote can always be found.
What is Stoicism, briefly?
Stoicism is a school of philosophy from ancient Greece and Rome that teaches you to focus on what you control, your own judgments and actions, and to meet everything else with calm acceptance. Its best-known writers are Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, whose works survive and are still widely read.
Stoicism isn’t about suppressing emotion. The Stoics wanted to see clearly, act well and not be thrown by things outside their control. Their writing is practical: letters, notes to self and a handbook, not abstract theory. For a related idea that the Stoics come close to, see amor fati, the practice of loving what happens.
For more exercises in the same spirit, the personal growth exercises page has seven you can do with a pen and ten minutes.
How do you journal with Stoic quotes?
To journal with a Stoic quote, copy one line by hand, write what it means in your own words, then answer one question about your own life with it. Ten minutes is enough. The point is to apply the idea to today, not to agree with it in general.
- Pick one quote that fits what’s on your mind, or use the picker at the top of this page.
- Copy it by hand. Writing it out slows you down enough to read it properly.
- Put it in your own words. One sentence.
- Answer the question under it, about something specific from this week.
- Keep the good ones. A commonplace book is the traditional place to collect lines like these, filed by topic.
Stoic quotes FAQs
Did Marcus Aurelius write Meditations to be published?
No. Meditations is a set of private notes Marcus wrote to himself, which is why it’s repetitive and addressed to “thou.” It was only copied and circulated after his death.
Which translation of Meditations should I read?
Modern translations read more easily, but Long’s 1862 version is free, accurate and in the public domain, which is why it’s used here. It’s available free at the Internet Classics Archive.
Are Stoic quotes on social media real?
Some are, many are paraphrases and a few are invented. A real Stoic quote can be traced to a book and section in Meditations, Seneca’s letters or Epictetus. If it can’t, it probably isn’t a quote.
Can I use Stoic quotes as journal prompts?
Yes. Stoic writing was meant to be applied, and most of these lines turn naturally into a question. Each quote on this page comes with one to start you off.
Mike Arnold
Mike is a first-year counselling student who has journaled on and off for most of his life. He writes the how-to guides and the occasional bit of philosophy. About our writers