Important Quotations from Stoic Philosophers

Use these text passages from Stoic philosophers such as Seneca, Epictetus and the Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (CE 121-180) to compare to your own daily thoughts and Stoic practice.

Someone asked Epictetus’ advice on how to get his brother to stop being on bad terms with him.
Can there be anything, then, in this happening which prevents you from being just, high-minded, self-controlled...
Let us too overcome all things, with our reward consisting not in any wreath or garland... but in moral worth...
What we can do is adopt a noble spirit, such a spirit as befits a good man, so that we may bear up bravely under all that fortune sends us
The true man is revealed in difficult times.
How delightful the sleep that follows this self-examination --
Nature, all that your seasons bring is fruit to me.
The spectacle of Cato
From Apollonius: moral freedom
It is bad luck that this has happened to me.
Do not come back to philosophy as a schoolboy to tutor
‘What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend.’
You will be angry first with this man, then with that one; first with slaves, then with freedmen; first with parents, then with children...
Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling, ungrateful, aggressive, treacherous, malicious, unsocial.
make no pretence of ‘obstacle in the way.’ … like fire rising, a stone falling, a roller on a slope…
A stone thrown in the air
Say to yourself first thing in the morning: today I shall meet people who are meddling...
Without philosophy the mind is sickly.
From my (adoptive) father: gentleness, and an immovable adherence to decisions made after full consideration
Behold the most glorious cities whose foundations can scarcely be traced -- anger cast them down
you will see what sort of critics you fear
Think of the whole of existence, of which you are the tiniest part...
Think of the qualities of your fellows