508 Quotes About Stoicism

[E]verything which went beyond our actual needs was just so much unnecessary weight, a burden to the man who had to carry it.

If a discrepancy exists between supply and demand, then for the Stoics the prescription for a happy life was to decrease demand, not to increase supply (or production), which the Hedonists saw as the prescription for a happy life.

The present is the same for everyone; its loss is thesame for everyone; and it should be clear that a brief instantis all that is lost. For you can’t lose either the past or thefuture; how could you lose what you don’t have?

Disturbance comes only from within- from our own perceptions. Everything you see will soon alter and cease to exist

We should not use philosophy like a herbal remedy, to be discarded when we're through. Rather, we must allow philosophy to remain with us, continually guarding our judgements throughout life, forming part of our daily regimen, like eating a nutritious diet or taking phisical exercise.

Ambition: The willingness to continually question and assess one’s acceptance and contentment with their place in life; conjunct with the willingness to take action should a resolvable discrepancy between one’s values and one’s current standing, present itself.By extension, an ambitious person is someone who has to the best of their abilities thoughtfully defined their values and continues on to do whatever is reasonably possible to fully embrace who they are in life.

[W]e can have the things we need for our ordinary purposes if we will only be content with what the earth has made available on its surface.

The things that are essential are acquired with little bother; it is the luxuries that call for toil and effort.

[W]hatever happens is never as serious as rumour makes it out to be.