"Stop wandering about! You aren't likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you've collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life's purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue - if you care for yourself at all - and do it while you can."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.14
"To bear trials with a calm mind
robs misfortune of its strength and burden."
~ Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, 231-232
"In all things we should try to make ourselves be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a manner in which justice, commonly held to belong to others, is not. Gratitude pays itself back in large measure."
~~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 81.19
"Everything lasts for a day, the one who remembers, and the remembered."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.35
Ibi semper est victoria ubi concordia est.
"Where there is concord, there always is victory."
~ Publilius Syrus, Sententia 289
With macrons: Ibi semper est victōria ubi concordia est.
"It's a disgrace in this life when the soul surrenders first while the body refuses to."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.29
Fures privatorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt; fures publici in auro atque in purpura.
"Thieves who steal from private individuals spend their life in bond and shackles; thieves who steal from the public treasury, in gold and purple."
~ Cato the Elder, 234 - 149 B.C.E.
"It's not at all that we have too short a time to live, but that we squander a great deal of it. Life is long enough, and it's given in sufficient measure to do many great things if we spend it well. But when it's poured down the drain of luxury and neglect, when it's employed to no good end, we're finally driven to see that it has passed by before we even recognized it passing. And so it is - we don't receive a short life, we make it so."
~ Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 1.3-4a
felices ferias!
"happy holidays!"
The common word in Latin for a holiday - feriae - exists only in the plural; it has no singular in Classical Latin (though a singular form was invented by back formation in Late Latin). Hence, the word translated into English means both "holiday" and "holidays."
With macrons: fēlīcēs fēriās!
"The mind must be given relaxation - it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced - for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break - so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives rise to a certain kind of dullness and feebleness in the rational soul."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 17.5
ad hominem
"to the person" = personal
Usually used in English in the phrase "ad hominem attack," referring to the rhetorical device of attacking the person of one's opponent in an argument, rather than attacking the ideas of one's opponent; thus, a rhetorical fallacy (personal arguments rather than logical ones); calling one's opponent names rather than trying to refute their arguments
"You know what wine and liqueur tastes like. It makes no difference whether a hundred or a thousand bottles pass through your bladder - you are nothing more than a filter."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 77.16
Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque.
"The Roman state stands on its ancient customs (moribus) and heroes (or "and men" - virisque)."
~ Quintus Ennius, c. 239 - c. 169 B.C.E.
"You are afraid of dying. But, come now, how is this life of yours anything but death?"
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 77.18
"For it's disgraceful for an old person, or one in sight of old age, to have only the knowledge carried in their notebooks. Zeno said this . . . what do you say? Cleanthes said that . . . what do you say? How long will you be compelled by the claims of another? Take charge and stake your own claim - something posterity will carry in its notebook."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 33.7
Necessitas non habet legem.
"Necessity does not know any law." (Literally, "Necessity does not have any law.")
~ Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090 - 1153 C.E. (French reformer of monastic life); quoted by Oliver Cromwell in speech to Parliament on September 12th, 1654 C.E.
With macrons: Necessitās nōn habet lēgem.
"Do you then ponder how the supreme of human evils, the surest mark of the base and cowardly, is not death, but the fear of death? I urge you to discipline yourself against such fear, direct all your thinking, exercises, and reading this way - and you will know the only path to human freedom."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.26.38-39
ad hoc
"for this purpose" (literally "to this," where "this" is neuter)
In English, the Latin phrase ad hoc is used to designate something that exists for only a specific purpose. For example, an "ad hoc committee" is a committee formed to deal with a specific issue, rather than a permanent, standing committee. Once that issue is resolved, the ad hoc committee disbands, its purpose having been fulfilled.
"Think of the whole universe of matter and how small your share.. Think about the expanse of time and how brief - almost momentary - the part marked for you. Think of the workings of fate, and how infinitesimal your role."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.24
Dies dolorem minuit.
"Time (lit. "A day." as in "Each day") diminishes sorrow."
~ Robert Burton, 1577-1640, English author of The Anatomy of Melancholy
With macrons: diēs dolōrem minuit.
"Both Alexander the Great and his mule-keeper were both brought to the same place by death - they were either received into the all-generative reason, or scattered among the atoms.'
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.24
Saturnalibus, optimo dierum!
"On Saturnalia, on the best of days!"
~ Gaius Valerius Catullus, c. 84 - c. 54 B.C.E. (poem 14a)
"Death lies heavy upon one
who, known exceedingly well by all,
dies unknown to himself."
~ Seneca, Thyestes, 400
Res publica virum docet.
"Public affairs (or "affairs of state") teach a man."
~ Attributed to Plutarch, a Greek author, apparently translated into Latin by Erasmus of Rotterdam.
The term res publica literally means "public matters," sometimes translated as "Republic," though that is not the sense here. The idea that involvement in public affairs - social and governmental matters in the community - is part of the education of a young man is common in ancient Greek democracies such as Athens and in ancient Rome. Our English word "idiot" actually comes from the ancient Greek word for "private," meaning a person who lives a private life and does not take part in public life is an . . . idiot. A less sexist, modern version might be Res publica civem docet - "Public affairs teach the citizen."
With macrons: Rēs pūblica virum docet.
Rēs pūblica cīvem docet.
"I tell you, you only have to learn to live like the healthy person does . . . living with complete confidence. What confidence? The only one worth holding, in what is trustworthy, unhindered, and can't be taken away - your own reasoned choice."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.26.23b-24
ab initio, sometimes abbreviated in English usage ab init.
"from the beginning"
"This is the mark of perfection of character - to spend each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, laziness, or any pretending."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.69
Semper pluris feci ego
potioremque habui libertatem quam pecuniam.
"I have always valued freedom more highly than money, and preferred it."
~ Gnaeus Naevius (c. 270 - c. 201 B.C.E.), Agitatoria
"Soon you will doe, and still you aren't sincere, undisturbed, or free from suspicion that external things can harm you, nor are you gracious to all, knowing that wisdom and acting justly are one and the same."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.37
Experientia docet.
"Experience teaches"
~ Cornelius Tacitus (56 - 120 C.E.)
"You aren't bothered, are you, because you weigh a certain amount and not twice as much? So why get worked up that you've been given a certain lifespan and not more? Just as you are satisfied with your normal weight, so you should be with the time you've been given."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.49
ab ovo usque ad mala
"from egg(s) to apples" = "from beginning to end" (egg was sometimes and ancient Roman appetizer course, apples and other fruit were frequently a dessert course, so the expression comes from feasting - "from appetizers to dessert")
"Walk the long gallery of the past, of empires and kingdoms succeeding each other without number. And you can also see the future, for surely it will be exactly the same, unable to deviate from the present rhythm. It's all one whether we've experienced forty years or an aeon. What more is there to see?"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.49
"As Cicero says, we hate gladiators if they are quick to save their lives by any means; we favor them if they show contempt for their lives."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.4b
Praestatur laus virtuti, sed multo ocius verno gelu tabescit.
"Praise is bestowed upon virtue, but melts away more quickly than a spring frost."
~ Livius Andronicus (c. 280 - c. 205 B.C.E.)
Ditat Deus.
"God enriches."
~ Motto of the State of Arizona
With macrons: "Dītat Deus."
"I say, let no one rob me of a single day who isn't going to make a full return on the loss."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 1.11b
dis volentibus (more common, shortened form of deis volentibus)
"with the gods being willing," "if the gods are willing," "gods willing"
This expression is a Latin construction called an Ablative Absolute which has no exact parallel in English. Both the Latin words are in the Ablative case.
The equivalent expression for a single god would be deo volente, the Christian expression is normally rendered with a capital d: Deo volente = "God willing."
"Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay; yet we easily let others encroach on our lives - worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passerby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers."
~ Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 3.1-2
Est unusquisque faber ipse suae fortunae.
"Every man is the craftsman of his own fortune."
~ Appius Claudius Caecus (c. 340 - c. 273 B.C.E.)
"It's better to conquer grief than to deceive it."
~ Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia, 17.1b
Spem successus alit.
"Success feeds hope."
~ Anonymous
Proverbial; motto of Clan Ross of Scotland
"Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what's left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Mediations, 7.56-57
"Don't behave as if you are destined to live forever. What's fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.17
"Keep death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems terrible - by doing so, you'll never have a base thought nor will you have excessive desire."
~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 21
"Anything that can be prevented, taken away, or coerced is not a person's own - but those things that can't be blocked are their own."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.24.3
"Philosophy doe not claim to get a person any external possession. To do so would be beyond its proper field. As wood is to the carpenter, bronze is to the sculptor, so our own lives are the proper material in the art of living."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.15.2
"Let each thing you would do, say, or intend be like that of a dying person."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.11.1
"Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day . . . The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 101.7b-8a
"The person who follows reason in all things will have both leisure and a readiness to act - they are at once both cheerful and self-composed."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.12b
"Don't lament this and don't get agitated."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.43
"If someone is slipping up, kindly correct them and point out what they missed. But if you can't, blame yourself - or no one."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.4
"How satisfying it is to dismiss and black out any upsetting or foreign impression, and immediately to have peace in all things."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.2
"We are like many pellets of incense falling on the same altar. Some collapse sooner, others later, but it makes no difference."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.15
"As for me, I would choose being sick over living in luxury, for being sick only harms the body, whereas luxury destroys both the body and soul, causing weakness and incapacity in the body, and lack of control and cowardice in the soul. What's more, luxury breeds injustice because it breeds greediness."
~ Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 20.95.14-17
"Whenever you experience the pangs of losing something, don't treat it like part of yourself but as a breakable glass, so when it falls you will remember that and won't be troubled. So too, whenever you kiss your child, sibling, or friend, don't layer on top of the experience all the things you might wish, but hold them back and stop them, just as those who ride behind triumphant generals remind them they are mortal. In the same way, remind yourself that your precious one isn't one of your possessions, but something given for now, not forever . . ."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.24.84-86a
"In short, you must remember this - that if you hold anything dear outside of your own reasoned choice, you will have destroyed your capacity for choice."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.4.23
"Fortune falls heavily on those for whom she's unexpected. The one always on the lookout easily endures."
~ Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia, 5.3
"A good isn't increased by the addition of time, but if one is wise even for a moment, they will be no less happy than the person who exercises virtue for all time and happily passes their life in it."
~ Chrysippus, quoted by Plutarch in Moralia: "Against the Stoics on Common Conceptions"
"If you've seen the present, you've seen all things, from time immemorial into all of eternity. For everything that happens is related and the same."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.37
"For any challenge we should hold three thoughts at our command:
'Lead on God and Destiny,
To that Goal fixed for me long ago,
I will follow and not stumble; even if my will
is weak I will soldier on.'"
~ Cleanthes
"Whoever embraces necessity count as wise, skilled in divine matters."
~ Euripides
"If it pleases the gods, so be it. They may well kill me, but they can't hurt me."
~ Plato's Crito and Apology
Cited by Epictetus, Enchiridion, 53
"Our rational nature moves freely forward in its impressions when it:
1. accepts nothing false or uncertain;
2. directs its impulses only to acts for the common good;
3. limits its desires and aversions only to what's in its own power;
4. embraces everything nature assigns to it."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.7
"When philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly, it is the cause for the ruin of many. Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 103.4b-5a
"Hecato says, 'cease to hope and you will cease to fear.' . . . The primary cause of both these ills is that instead of adapting ourselves to present circumstances we send our thoughts too far ahead."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 5.7b-8
"Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river's unending flow, its activities continually changing, and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.23
"He was sent to prison. But the observation, 'he has suffered evil,' is an addition coming from you."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.8.5b-6a
"Don't allow yourself to be heard any longer griping about public life, not even with your own ears!"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.9
"If we judge as good and evil only the things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hostile to others."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.41
"When you are distressed by an external thing, it's not the thing itself that troubles you, but only your judgment of it. And you can wipe this out at a moment's notice."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.47
Thank you, Captain Jack Sparrow, Stoic philosopher!
"Think by way of example of the times of Vespasian, and you'll see all these things: marrying, raising children, falling ill, dying, wars, holiday feasts, commerce, farming, flattering, pretending, suspecting, scheming, praying that others die, grumbling over one's lot, falling in love, amassing fortunes, lusting after office and power. Now that life of theirs is dead and gone . . . the times of Trajan, again the same . . . "
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32
"The universe is change. Life is opinion."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.3.4b
"Remember that you are just an actor in a play, playing a character according to the will of the playwright - if a short play, then it's short; if long, long. If he wishes you to play a beggar, play even that role well, just as you would if it were a cripple, a honcho, or an everyday person. For this is your duty, to perform well the character assigned to you. That selection belongs to another,"
~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 17
"Don't trust in your reputation, money, or position, but in the strength that is yours - namely, your judgments about the things that you control and don't control. For this alone is what makes you free and unfettered, that picks us up by the neck from the depths and lifts us eye to eye with the rich and powerful."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.26.34-35
"If the breaking day sees someone proud,
The ending day sees them brought low.
No one should put too much trust in triumph,
No one should give up hope of trials improving.
Clotho mixes one with the other and stops
Fortune from resting, spinning every fate around.
No one has had so much divine favor
That they could guarantee themselves tomorrow.
God keeps our lives hurtling on,
Spinning us in a whirlwind."
~ Seneca, Thyestes, 613
Seeing the reversals of fortune as states that had seemed on Election Day to go for Trump now flipped for Biden, this seems a very appropriate meditation. But even now, of course, the course of fate could reverse again, and as more votes are counted, things could change. But for now - the breaking day saw Trump proud, the ending day sees him brought low, as Georgia and Pennsylvania have both flipped to Biden!
"This is the very thing which makes up the virtue of the happy person and a well-flowing life - when the affairs of life are in every way tunes to the harmony between the individual divine spirit and the will of the director of the universe."
~ Chrysippus, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.88
"There is no evil in things changing, just as there is no good in persisting in the same state."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.42
"Just as we commonly hear people say the doctor prescribed some one particular riding exercises, or ice baths, or walking without shoes, we should in the same way say that nature prescribed someone to be diseased, or disabled, or to suffer any kind of impairment. In the case of the doctor, prescribed means something ordered to help aid someone's healing. But in the case of nature, it means that what happens to each of us is ordered to help aid our destiny."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.8
Personal note: This is a hard one. It sounds suspiciously like it is saying that a person deserves or even needs any apparent hardships that befall. One needs to really understand a number of aspects of Stoic philosophy to appreciate what this is really talking about. If one accepts that virtue is the only true good, and vice the only true evil, it follows that pain, disease, etc. are not true evils. They are not preferred, but they are not truly bad things. Furthermore, if one accepts the concept of providence - the idea that the universe is divinely inspired and divinely ordered - then apparent hardships (e.g., illness) that befall someone are not actually bad, and were divinely appointed besides. It is very uncomfortable to tell someone who feels that they are suffering that their pain is not real pain, and that they deserve it anyway! But this is not really what Stoicism teaches, or what Marcus is saying. But he is saying that what happens to a person happens, and cannot be altered after the fact - what has been appointed by fate cannot be altered. It is ordered to aid our destiny, in that sense. And while it is not so much that our suffering was sent to teach us a lesson, the Stoic would certainly say that we can choose to learn from "dispreferred" events. In short, I feel like this one is very easy to misunderstand and misinterpret if one is not deeply steeped in Stoicism - I'll post it anyway, but it's not for beginners!
"But I haven't at any time been hindered in my will, nor forced against it. And how is this possible? I have bound up my choice to act with the will of God. God wills that I be sick, such is my will. He wills that I should choose something, so I do. He wills that I reach for something, or something be given to me - I wish for the same. What God doesn't will, I do not wish for."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.1.89
"Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will - then your life will flow well."
~ Epictetus, Enchiridion, 8
"It is easy to praise providence for anything that may happen if you have two qualities: a complete view of what has actually happened in each instance and a sense of gratitude. Without gratitude what is the point of seeing, and without seeing what is the object of gratitude?"
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.6.1-2
"The human being is born with an inclination toward virtue."
~ Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 2.7.1-2
"Aren't you ashamed to reserve for yourself only remnants of your life and to dedicate to wisdom only that time that can't be directed to business?"
~ Seneca, On the Brevity of Life, 3.5b
"Each person acquires their own character, but their official roles are designated by chance. You should invite some to your table because they are deserving, others because they may come to deserve it."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 47.15b
"You'll more quickly find an earthly thing kept from the earth than you will a person cut off from other human beings."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.9.3
"Crimes often return to their teacher."
~ Seneca, Thyestes, 311
"The best and greatest number of authors have asserted that philosophy consists of three parts: the moral, the natural, and the rational. The first puts the soul in order. The second thoroughly examines the natural order of things. The third inquires into the proper meaning of words, and their arrangements and proofs which keep falsehoods from creeping in to displace truth."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 89.9
"What, then, makes a person free from hindrance and self-determining? For wealth doesn't. neither does high-office, state or kingdom - rather, something else must be found . . . in the case of living, it is the knowledge of how to live."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.1.62-64
"Dig deep within yourself, for there is a fountain of goodness ever ready to flow if you will keep digging."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.59
"People aren't in awe of your sharp mind? So be it. But you have many other qualities you can't claim to have been deprived of at birth. Display then those qualities in your own power: honesty, dignity, endurance, chastity, contentment, frugality, kindness, freedom, persistence, avoiding gossip, and magnanimity."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.5
"So someone's good at taking down an opponent, but that doesn't make them more community-minded, or modest, or well-prepared for any circumstance, or more tolerant of the faults of others."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.52
"Such behavior! People don't want to praise their contemporaries whose lives they actually share, but hold great expectations for the praise of future generations - people they haven't met or ever will! This is akin to being upset that past generations didn't praise you."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.18
"You have proof in the extent of your wanderings that you never found the art of living anywhere - not in logic, nor in wealth, fame, or in any indulgence. Nowhere. Where is it then? In doing what human nature demands. How is a person to do this? By having principles be the source of desire and action. What principles? Those to do with good and evil, indeed in the belief that there is no good for a human being except what creates justice, self-control, courage, and freedom, and nothing evil except what destroys these things."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.1.(5)
"Since habit is such a powerful influence, and we're used to pursuing our impulses to gain and avoid outside of our own choice, we should set a contrary habit against that, and where appearances are really slippery, use the counterforce of our training."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.12.6
"Some people with exceptional minds quickly grasp virtue, or produce it within themselves. But other dim and lazy types, hindered by bad habits, must have their rusty souls constantly scrubbed down . . . The weaker sorts will be helped and lifted from their bad opinions if we put them in the care of philosophy's principles."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 95.36-37
"Everything turns on your assumptions about it, and that's on you. You can pluck out the hasty judgment at will, and like steering a ship around the point, you will find calm seas, fair weather, and a safe port."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.22
"Are you angry when someone's armpits stink or when their breath is bad? What would be the point? Having such a mouth and such armpits, there's going to be a smell emanating. You say, they must have sense, can't they tell how they are offending others? Well, you have sense too, congratulations! So, use your natural reason to awaken theirs, show them, call it out. If the person will listen, you will have cured them without useless anger. No drama nor unseemly show required."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.28
"The best way to avenge yourself is to not be like that."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.6
"How much better to heal than to seek revenge from injury. Vengeance wastes a lot of time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course. Would anyone think it normal to return a kick to a mule or to bite a dog?"
~ Seneca, On Anger, 3.27.2
"Hecato says, 'I can teach you a love potion made without any drugs, herbs, or special spell - if you would be loved, love.'"
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 9.6
"How rotten and fraudulent when people say they intend to 'give it to you straight.' What are you up to, dear friend? It shouldn't need your announcement, but be readily seen, as if written on your forehead, heard in the ring of your voice, a flash in your eyes - just as the beloved sees it all in the lover's glance. In short, the straightforward and good person should be like a smelly goat - you know when they are in the room with you."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.15
"Leave the past behind, let the grand design take care of the future, and instead only rightly guide the present to reverence and justice. Reverence so that you'll love what you've been allotted, for nature brought you both to each other. Justice so that you'll speak the truth freely and without evasion, and so that you'll act only as the law and value of things require."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.1
"When the standards have been set, things are tested and weighed. And the work of philosophy is just this, to determine and uphold the standards, but the work of a truly good person is in using those standards when they know them."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.11.23-25
"Yes, getting your wish would have been so nice. But isn't that exactly why pleasure trips us up? Instead, see if these things might be even nicer - a great soul, freedom, honesty, kindness, saintliness. For there is nothing so pleasing as wisdom itself, when you consider how sure-footed and effortless the works of understanding and knowledge are."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.9
"The person who does wrong, does wrong to themselves. The unjust person is unjust to themselves - making themselves evil."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Mediations, 9.4
"It's in keeping with Nature to show our friends affection and to celebrate their advancement, as if it were our very own. For if we don't do this, virtue, which is strengthened only by exercising our perceptions, will no longer endure in us."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 109.15
"Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue."
~ Zeno, as quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.26
"That which isn't good for the hive, isn't good for the bee."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.54
"But the wise person can lose nothing. Such a person has everything stored up for themselves, leaving nothing to Fortune, their own goods are held firm, bound in virtue, which requires nothing from chance, and therefore can't be either increased or diminished."
~ Seneca, On the Firmness of the Wise, 5.4
"Does the light of a lamp shine and keep its glow until its fuel is spent? Why shouldn't your truth, justice, and self-control shine until you are extinguished?"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.15
"Nothing can satisfy greed, but even a small measure satisfies nature. So it is that the poverty of an exile brings no misfortune, for no place of exile is so barren as not to produce ample support for a person."
~ Seneca, On Consolation to Helvia, 10.11b
"How appropriate that the gods put under our control only the most powerful ability that governs all the rest - the ability to make the right use of external appearances - and that they didn't put anything else under our control. Was this simply because they weren't willing to give us more? I think if it had been possible they would have given us more, but it was impossible."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.7-8
"For even peace itself will supply more reason for worry. Not even safe circumstances will bring you confidence once your mind has been shocked - once it gets in the habit of blind panic, it can't provide for its own safety. For it doesn't really avoid danger, it just runs away. Yet we are exposed to greater danger with our backs turned."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 104.10b
"Leisure without study is death - a tomb for the living person."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 82.4
"Show me someone who isn't a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman . . . No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 47.17
"Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person's pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things and we shouldn't just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won't knock off its high horse if it pleases her?"
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 91.3a-4
"Remember that your ruling reason becomes unconquerable when it rallies and relies on itself, so that it won't do anything contrary to its own will, even if its position is irrational. How much more unconquerable if its judgments are careful and made rationally? Therefore, the mind freed from its passions is an impenetrable fortress - a person has no more secure place of refuge for all time."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.48
"Difficulties show a person's character. So when a challenge confronts you, remember that God is matching you with a younger sparring partner, as would a physical trainer. Why? Becoming an Olympian takes sweat! I think no one has a better challenge than yours, if only you would use it like an athlete would that younger sparring partner."
~ Epictetus, Meditations, 1.24.1-2
"When forced, as it seems, by circumstances into utter confusion, get a hold of yourself quickly. Don't be locked out of the rhythm any longer than necessary. You'll be able to keep the beat if you are constantly returning to it."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.11
"The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.61
"Remember that to change your mind and to follow someone's correction are consistent with a free will. For the action is yours alone - to fulfill its purpose in keeping with your impulse and judgment, and yes, with your intelligence."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.16
"Whenever you suffer pain, keep in mind that it's nothing to be ashamed of and that it can't degrade your guiding intelligence, nor keep it from acting rationally and for the common good. And in most cases you should be helped by the saying of Epicurus, that pain is never unbearable or unending, so you can remember these limits and not add to them in your imagination. Remember too that many common annoyances are pain in disguise, fever and loss of appetite. When they start to get you down, tell yourself you are giving in to pain."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.64
"What if someone despises me? Let them see to it. But I will see to it that I won't be found doing or saying anything contemptible. What if someone hates me? Let them see to that. But I will see to it that I'm kind and good-natured to all, and prepared to show even the hater where they went wrong. Not in a critical way, or to show off my patience, but genuinely and usefully."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.13
"Success comes to the lowly, and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.1
"Try praying differently, and see what happens: Instead of asking for 'a way to sleep with her,' try asking for 'a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.' Instead of 'a way to get rid of him,' try asking for 'a way to not crave his demise.' Instead of 'a way to not lose my child,' try asking for 'a way to lose my fear of it.'"
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.40.(6)
"No, it is events that give rise to fear - when another has power over them or can prevent them, that person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but by judgments . . . here is where we must begin, and it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 4.1.85-86; 87a
"Zeno always said that nothing was more unbecoming than putting on airs, especially with the young."
~ Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophy, 7.1.22
"Let us get used to dining out without the crowds, to being a slave to fewer slaves, to getting clothes only for their real purpose, and to living in more modest quarters."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 9.3b
"But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 13.12b
"No one is crushed by Fortune, unless they are first deceived by her . . . those who aren't pompous in good times, don't have their bubbles burst with change. Against either circumstance, the stable person keeps their rational soul invincible, for it's precisely in the good times they prove their strength against adversity."
~ Seneca, On Consolation To Helvia, 5.4b, 5b-6
"Consider who you are. Above all, a human being, carrying no greater power than your own reasoned choice, which oversees all other things, and is free from any other master."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 2.10.1
"You can bind up my leg, but not even Zeus has the power to break my freedom of choice."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.23
"I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent - no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you."
~ Seneca, On Providence, 4.3
"We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.32
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.23.30
"The rational soul is stronger than any kind of fortune - from its own share it guides its affairs here or there, and is itself the cause of a happy or miserable life."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 98.2b
"Whenever you take offense at someone's wrongdoing, immediately turn to your own similar failings, such as seeing money as good, or pleasure, or a little fame - whatever form it takes. By thinking on this, you'll quickly forget your anger, considering also what compels them - for what else could they do? Or, if you are able, remove their compulsion."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.30
"Anything that must be done, virtue can do with courage and promptness. For anyone would call it a sign of foolishness for one to undertake a task with a lazy and begrudging spirit, or to push the body in one direction and the mind in another, to be torn apart by wildly divergent impulses."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 31.b-32
"No person has the power to to have everything they want, but it is in their power to not want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 123.3
"The founder of the universe, who assigned to us the laws of life, provided that we should live well, but not in luxury. Everything needed for our well-being is right before us, whereas what luxury requires is gathered by many miseries and anxieties. Let us use this gift of nature and count it among the greatest things."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 119.15b
"Heraclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public - Democritus laughed. One saw the whole the whole as a parade of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 15.2
"I was shipwrecked before I even boarded . . . the journey showed me this - how much of what we have is unnecessary, and how easily we can decide to rid ourselves of these things whenever it's necessary, never suffering the loss."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 87.1
"Won't you be walking in your predecessors' footsteps? I surely will use the older path, but if I find a shorter and smoother way, I'll blaze a trail there. The ones who pioneered these paths aren't our masters, but our guides. Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn't been monopolized."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 33.11
"I'll never be ashamed to quote a bad writer with a good saying."
~ Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, 11.8
"Therefore, explain why a wise person shouldn't get drunk - not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness. It's most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measures, are but punishments."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27
"It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won't tire and give up, if you aren't busying yourself with lesser things beynd what should be allowed.'
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.32b
"It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest - by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 98.5b-6a
"Inwardly, we ought to be different in every respect, but our outward dress should blend in with the crowd."
Seneca, Moral Letters, 5.2
"It is said that if you would have peace of mind, busy yourself with little. But wouldn't a better saying be do what you must and as required of a rational being created for public life? For this brings not only the peace of mind of doing few things, but the greater peace of doing them well. Since the vast majority of our words and actions are unnecessary, corralling them will create an abundance of leisure and tranquility. As a result, we shouldn't forget at each moment to ask, is this one of the unnecessary things? But we must corral not only unnecessary actions but unnecessary thoughts, too, so needless acts don't tag along after them."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.24
"A good person is invincible, for they don't rush into contests in which they aren't the strongest. If you want their property, take it - take also their staff, profession, and body. But you will never compel what they set out for, nor trap them in what they would avoid. For the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?"
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.6.5-7
"For nothing outside my reasoned choice can hinder or harm it - my reasoned choice alone can do this to itself. If we would lean this way whenever we fail, and would blame only ourselves and remember that nothing but opinion is the cause of a troubled mind and uneasiness, then by God, I swear we would be making progress."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.19.2-3
"Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us the power - just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-opts it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.35
"Philosophy isn't a parlor trick or made for show. It's not concerned with words, but with facts. It's not employed for some pleasure before the day is spent, or to relieve the uneasiness of our leisure. It shapes and builds up the soul, it gives order to life, guides action, shows what should and shouldn't be done - it sits at the rudder, steering out course as we vacillate in uncertainties. Without it, no one can live without fear or free from care. Countless things happen every hour that require advice, and such advice is to be sought out in philosophy."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 16.3
"Many words have been spoken by Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Posidonius, and by a whole host of equally excellent Stoics. I'll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own - by putting into practice what they've been preaching."
~ Seneca, Moral Letters, 108.35; 38
"When the problem arose for us whether habit or theory was better for getting virtue - if by theory is meant what teaches us correct conduct, and by habit we mean being accustomed to act according to this theory - Musonius thought habit to be more effective."
~ Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 5.17.31-32, 5.19.1-2
"We don't abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them."
~ Epictetus, Discourses, 1.2.37b
"Don't tell yourself anything more than what the initial impressions report. It's been reported to you that someone is speaking badly about you. This is the report - the report wasn't that you've been harmed. I see that my son is sick - but not that his life is at risk. So always stay within your first impressions, and don't add to them in your head - this way nothing can happen to you."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.49
"Do now what nature demands of you. Get right to it if that's in your power. Don't look around to see if people will know about it. Don't await the perfection of Plato's Republic, but be satisfied with even the smallest step forward and regard the outcome as a small thing."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.29.(4)
"Wherever a person can live, there one can also live well; life is also in the demands of court, there too one can live well."
~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.16
