18 Timeless Stoicism Quotes to Navigate Life's Challenges with Wisdom and Grace

18 Timeless Stoicism Quotes

These are eighteen lines from four Stoic philosophers: Epictetus, who was a slave in Rome and later taught at Nicopolis in Epirus; Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor who wrote the Meditations; Seneca, who wrote letters of advice to his friend Lucilius; and Zeno of Citium, who founded the school.

Each quote is given in a named English translation that is now in the public domain, with the book and section number, so you can open the full text and read what comes before and after. Where a famous English line is not what the translation says, we go with the translation.

1. “There are things which are within our power…” — Epictetus

“There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.”

Epictetus, Enchiridion 1, translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The first line of the Enchiridion, the short handbook of Epictetus’s teaching. He goes straight on to say what falls on each side: within our power are opinion, aim, desire and aversion; beyond it are body, property, reputation and office. Most of the other lines on this page build on that split.

2. “No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be…” — Marcus Aurelius

“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, translated by George Long

It is written as an order, in the second person: stop describing what a good man is and be one.

3. “Externals are not in my power: will is in my power” — Epictetus

“Thus then in life also the chief business is this: distinguish and separate things, and say, Externals are not in my power: will is in my power.”

Epictetus, Discourses 2.5, translated by George Long

The chapter’s title is “How magnanimity is consistent with care”. Epictetus compares life to a game of dice: the throw is not yours, but how carefully you play it is.

4. “Things do not touch the soul” — Marcus Aurelius

“Things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.3, translated by George Long

This comes in a passage about retreat. People look for getaways in the country or by the sea, Marcus writes, when “it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself”.

5. “If it is not right, do not do it…” — Marcus Aurelius

“If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.17, translated by George Long

One of the shortest entries in the book. Long prints a broken-off clause after it, “[For let thy efforts be—]”, and notes that “there is something wrong here, or incomplete”.

6. “That which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road” — Marcus Aurelius

“The mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid; and so 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, translated by George Long

Marcus is talking about people who get in his way. They may impede his action, he writes, “but they are no impediments to my affects and disposition”.

7. “Lay hold of to-day’s task” — Seneca

“Hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow’s.”

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 1.2, translated by Richard M. Gummere

The first letter of the collection is about time. In the next sentence Seneca writes: “Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”

8. “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” — Seneca

“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 13.4, translated by Richard M. Gummere

Note the words “more often”: Seneca’s claim is about how often fear runs ahead of the facts, not a promise that every fear is groundless. He goes on: “Some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all.”

9. “We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly” — Seneca

“We should strive, not to live long, but to live rightly; for to achieve long life you have need of Fate only, but for right living you need the soul.”

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 93.2, translated by Richard M. Gummere

Seneca is answering a letter in which Lucilius lamented the death of the philosopher Metronax, as if he ought to have lived longer.

10. “If thou art doing thy duty” — Marcus Aurelius

“Let it make no difference to thee whether thou art cold or warm, if thou art doing thy duty; and whether thou art drowsy or satisfied with sleep; and whether ill-spoken of or praised; and whether dying or doing something else.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.2, translated by George Long

This is the real Stoic line on duty. The better-known “Do your duty, and leave the rest to the gods” is not from Marcus; see the section below.

11. “You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate” — Seneca

“You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.”

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 28.1, translated by Richard M. Gummere

Written to Lucilius after long travels had not lifted his gloom. In the next section Seneca repeats a remark he credits to Socrates: “Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you?”

12. “The soul is dyed by the thoughts” — Marcus Aurelius

“Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.16, translated by George Long

The image is of cloth taking a colour. What you think about again and again, he says, becomes what you are.

13. “Two ears and only one mouth” — Zeno of Citium

“The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.”

Zeno of Citium, as reported by Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.23, translated by R. D. Hicks

No complete work by Zeno survives. This line comes down to us because Diogenes Laertius, a later writer, collected stories and sayings about him. In the story Zeno says it to a young man who was talking nonsense.

14. “He is free who lives as he wishes to live” — Epictetus

“He is free who lives as he wishes to live; who is neither subject to compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force.”

Epictetus, Discourses 4.1, translated by George Long

The opening of the chapter “About freedom”. The better-known “No man is free who is not master of himself” is not in the Discourses or the Enchiridion: W. A. Oldfather’s translation prints it as Fragment 35, in the section he headed “Doubtful and spurious fragments”. This chapter is the traceable version of the same idea.

15. “It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are” — Epictetus

“It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.”

Epictetus, Discourses 1.24, translated by George Long

The chapter goes on to compare a hard situation to a wrestling trainer who has matched you with a rough young opponent, so that you can become an Olympic winner, which “is not accomplished without sweat”.

16. “Life in agreement with nature” — Zeno of Citium

“Zeno was the first (in his treatise On the Nature of Man) to designate as the end ‘life in agreement with nature’ (or living agreeably to nature), which is the same as a virtuous life.”

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.87, translated by R. D. Hicks

This is the Stoics’ definition of the goal of life, and it is reported, not quoted: Zeno’s treatise does not survive. “Nature” here does not mean the countryside. The section just before explains that for rational beings, “life according to reason rightly becomes the natural life”, which is why it equals a virtuous life.

17. “Men are disturbed not by things…” — Epictetus

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”

Epictetus, Enchiridion 5, translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

His example follows at once: death is nothing terrible, or it would have seemed so to Socrates. The terror is in the opinion that death is terrible.

18. “Take away thy opinion…” — Marcus Aurelius

“Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed.’ Take away the complaint, ‘I have been harmed,’ and the harm is taken away.”

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.7, translated by George Long

The same thought as number 17, from a different writer: the event happens, but the sense of injury comes from the judgment you add to it.

Three famous lines not found in Stoic texts

These three lines are sometimes presented as Stoic. None of them can be traced to a Stoic text:

• “Do your duty, and leave the rest to the gods.” This is from Pierre Corneille’s tragedy Horace, the last line of Act II, spoken by the elder Horace: Faites votre devoir, et laissez faire aux Dieux. The Stoic passage on duty is Meditations 6.2, number 10 above.
• “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” This is Bertrand Russell, in his 1925 book What I Believe, chapter “The Good Life”.
• “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” Credited to Marcus Aurelius, it is not in George Long’s translation of the Meditations, and we have found no ancient source for it. The real passage closest to it is Meditations 8.47: “If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.”

Navigate Life’s Challenges with Wisdom and Grace

A few ways to get more out of lines like these:

• Check the number. A real Stoic quote can be traced to a book and a section. If a line comes with only a name, search a public-domain translation of that author for a distinctive phrase. If it is not there, treat the attribution as unproven.
• Read the paragraph around it. Several of the lines above mean something narrower in context: Seneca’s line about fear is about frequency, and Marcus’s “obstacle” is about people who block him.
• Try the sorting exercise. The core Stoic habit, in Epictetus’s own terms, is to take a worry and ask which part of it is within your power (your opinion, aim, desire and aversion) and which is not (body, property, reputation, office). The Stoics’ claim is that effort belongs on the first list.
• Expect older English. Long’s translations use “thou” and “thy”. Newer translations read more smoothly, but when a modern line and an old translation disagree, compare both with the passage number before you decide which to trust.

Sources

• Epictetus, The Enchiridion, translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Project Gutenberg #45109, chapters 1 and 5.
• Epictetus, The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments, translated by George Long (1877), Wikisource: Book 1, Chapter 24, Book 2, Chapter 5, Book 4, Chapter 1.
• Epictetus, Fragments, translated by W. A. Oldfather, Wikisource, fragment 35, under “Doubtful and spurious fragments”.
• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, translated by George Long, Project Gutenberg #15877: 4.3, 4.7, 5.16, 5.20, 6.2, 8.47, 10.16, 12.17.
• Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, translated by Richard M. Gummere, Wikisource: letters 1, 13, 28, 93.
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, translated by R. D. Hicks, Wikisource, sections 23 and 87.
• Pierre Corneille, Horace, Act II, in Œuvres, ed. Marty-Laveaux (1862), vol. 3, French Wikisource.
• Bertrand Russell, What I Believe (1925), chapter II, Project Gutenberg #73782.

Checked September 2026.