These Stoic quotes share the ancient teaching of stoicism, a practice of perspective.
A common misconception about Stoicism is that a stoic is a man who is fearless and has no emotions.
This misconception was brought about through literature and old Hollywood where heroes such as the “stoic cowboy” influenced young men into thinking that emotion wasn’t manly.
What is stoicism?
The truth is, stoicism is not about living without emotion, and it is a practice that can be lived by anyone of any gender.
Stoicism is a mindfulness practice that originated in Athens in the 3rd century, BCE. The practice reminds us that the world is unpredictable, and that life is fleeting.
It teaches you how to be strong in your mind and to control your emotions, not to eliminate them altogether.
The following motivational stoic quotes will share techniques and insights on restraint, being mindful, and having humility.
Also, read these inspirational 48 Laws of Power quotes that will lead you to success.
Stoic quotes on restraint
1. “I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.” – Cato
![“I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.” – Cato wise Stoic Quotes](https://everydaypower.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Stoic-quotes-on-restraint.png)
2. “Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity.” – Robert Greene
![“Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity.” - Robert Greene Stoic Quotes to make the mind tougher](https://everydaypower.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Stoic-quotes-on-mindfulness.png)
3. “To be calm is the highest achievement of the self.” ― Zen proverb
![“To be calm is the highest achievement of the self.” ― Zen proverb Stoic Quotes to be calm](https://everydaypower.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Stoic-quotes-that-are-evanescent.png)
4. “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” – Marcus Aurelius
![“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” – Marcus Aurelius Stoic Quotes and sayings](https://everydaypower.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Stoic-quotes-on-humility-.png)
5. “We should always be asking ourselves: “Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?” — Epictetus (see more quotes from Epictetus)
6. “Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” – James Allen
Stoic quotes on mindfulness
7. “It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.” ― Seneca
8. “Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.” – Marcus Aurelius
9. “External thinks are not the problem. It’s your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.” – Marcus Aurelius
10. “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius
11. “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
12. “To be even-minded is the greatest virtue.” — Heraclitus
13. “Learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.” – Marcus Aurelius
14. “If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.” — Marcus Aurelius
15. “Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in.” – Shannon L. Alder
16. “We should not, like sheep, follow the herd of creatures in front of us, making our way where others go, not where we ought to go.” — Seneca
You might also like these wise Seneca quotes that will help you in all facets of life.
Stoic quotes that are evanescent
17. “Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.” ― Marcus Aurelius
18. “Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.” — Marcus Aurelius
19. “The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.” – Othello
20. “No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.” — Epictetus
21. “I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived – and dying I will tend to later.” — Epictetus
Stoic quotes on humility
22. “Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.” — Randy Pausch
23. “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” – Marcus Aurelius
24. “Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life.” – Robert Greene
25. “Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” — Marcus Aurelius
26. “No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato
27. “Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.” — Socrates
28. “Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.” — Marcus Aurelius
29. “Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”― Markus Zusak
30. “Warriors should suffer their pain silently.”― Erin Hunter
Stoic quotes to motivate you
31. “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One.” – Marcus Aurelius
32. “You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” – Marcus Aurelius
33. “He who fears death will never do anything worth of a man who is alive.” – Seneca
34. “Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.” – Seneca
35. “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” – Epictetus
36. “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”- Epictetus
37. “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” – Viktor Frankl
38. “Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” — Zeno of Citium
39. “It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more.”― Lucius Annaeus Seneca
40. “If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it.” – Marcus Aurelius
Stoic quotes to broaden your thoughts
41. “A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” — Seneca
42. “Sometimes in life we must fight not only wihtout fear, but also without hope.” — Alessandro Pertini
43. “Problems only exist in the human mind.” — Anthony de Mello
44. “Discomfort is the currency of success.” — Brooke Castillo
45. “Keep your intention pure. Emotions will try to distract you. So keep going. That’s the cure.” — Maxime Lagacé
46. “A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.” ― Taleb Nassim Nicholas
47. “Be so busy building your own life that other people’s bullshit is of no concern.” — Ed Latimore
48. “In life, it doesn’t matter what happens to you or where you came from. It matters what you do with what happens and what you’ve been given.” — Ryan Holiday
49. “Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
50. “Common man’s patience will bring him more happiness than common man’s power.”― Amit Kalantri
Stoic quotes on strength
51. “Feeling too much is a hell of a lot better than feeling nothing.”― Nora Roberts
52. “In order to protect ourselves, we must live like doctors and be continually treating ourselves with reason.”― Musonius Rufus
53. “For those who follow nature, everything is easy and straightforward, whereas for those who fight against her life is just like rowing against the stream.” – Seneca
54. “We’re never unhappy until we remember why we’re supposed to be unhappy.”― Daniel V Chappell
55. “All vices are at odds with nature.” – Seneca
56. “Many are the things that have caused terror during the night and been turned into matters of laughter with the coming of daylight.”― Seneca
57. “The most common act of violence is the relentless mental violence we perpetrate upon ourselves with nothing other than our thoughts.” – Bill Madden
58. “Change: nothing inherently bad in the process, nothing inherently good in the result.”― Marcus Aurelius
59. “Our efforts do not owe us our desired outcomes.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
60. “When pain comes, it must not derail you from your set virtues. If it does, you have failed to practice your virtues by going with the hype of pain.”― Tiisetso Maloma
61. “Never say that I have taken it, only that I have given it back.” – Epicurus
62. “No man is good by chance. Virtue is something which must be learned.”― Seneca
63. “You have two essential tasks in life: to be a good person and to pursue the occupation that you love. Everything else is a waste of energy and a squandering of your potential.”― Ryan Holiday
64. “For I am not everlasting, but a human being, a part of the whole as an hour is a part of the day. Like an hour I must come, and like an hour pass away.”― Epictetus
Inspiration stoic quotes
65. “Stoicism, in our day, is not strength to overcome wishes, but to hide them.” – Rollo May, ‘Love and Will.’
66. “The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time. ” – Marcus Aurelius
67. “They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn. ” – Seneca
68. “There is no better way to grow as a person than to do something you hate every day.” – David Goggins
69. “And if you want to know why all this running away cannot help you, the answer is simply this: you are running away in your own company.”― Seneca
70. “The universe is change, and life mere opinion.”― Democrates
71. “Entrust everything willingly to the gods, and then make your way through life—no one’s master and no one’s slave.” – Marcus Aurelius
72. “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” – Viktor Frankl
73. “Nothing can affect a person’s mind if he chooses not to be affected by it.”― Cave Man
74. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” – Seneca
Stoic quotes on control
75. “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Viktor Frankl
76. “The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” – Epictetus
77. “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
78. “How does it help…to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?” – Seneca
79. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.” – Epictetus
80. “The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.” – Robert Greene
81. “What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” – Tim Ferriss
82. “Be a master of the mind, not mastered by the mind.” – Zen proverb
83. “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.” – Plato
84. “The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.” – Seneca
85. “Intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Do these stoic quotes offer you a new perspective on life?
Stoicism is an honest review on the self and on our culture about how we can become better people.
These stoic quotes offer a reflection on how to deal with the challenges life offers us so that we can grow to be happier and more mindful.
Practicing mindfulness makes us stronger in the face of adversity. Practicing humility not only stifles our egos but keeps the world in perspective.
Knowing that the gift of life is fleeting puts the world in perspective so that we may appreciate more of what we have.
Knowing your emotions, but practicing restraint not only builds patience but also strength in ourselves.
Use these stoic quotes and sayings to reflect on the world around you and use the perspective you gain as an aid to living a better life.
Did these stoic quotes motivate you? Which one was your favorite? Share with us in the comment section below.
The post Stoic Quotes that will Strengthen your Perspective on Life appeared first on Everyday Power.