Checked, with sources
121 lines from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and a few others, each one checked word for word against a full text of the work. No paraphrases passed off as quotes, no lines nobody can find.
121 quotes
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 2.1 (tr. Long)
Used in What Did Marcus Aurelius Say About Difficult People?, What to Say to a Difficult Coworker or Boss: 23 Plain Lines
Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 2.11 (tr. Long)
Used in 22 Things to Say When You've Been Busy and Absent at Home
The universe is transformation: life is opinion.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 4.3 (tr. Long)
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 (tr. Long)
Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 4.17 (tr. Long)
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 4.49 (tr. Long)
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 5.1 (tr. Long)
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 (tr. Long)
Let not future things disturb thee, for thou wilt come to them, if it shall be necessary, having with thee the same reason which now thou usest for present things.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 7.8 (tr. Long)
The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 7.69 (tr. Long)
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 8.47 (tr. Long)
Used in 22 Things to Say When You've Been Anxious and Haven't Told Anyone
Consider how much more pain is brought on us by the anger and vexation caused by such acts than by the acts themselves, at which we are angry and vexed.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 11.18 (tr. Long)
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 12.4 (tr. Long)
The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, 6.6 (tr. Long)
Used in What Did Marcus Aurelius Say About Difficult People?, What to Say to a Difficult Coworker or Boss: 23 Plain Lines
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 (tr. Long)
That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 6, section 54 (George Long translation)
Used in How do I deal with a coworker who takes credit for my work?, How to Deal With Life Feeling Unfair
We are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 2, section 1 (George Long translation)
Let not future things disturb thee
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 7, section 8 (trans. George Long)
A cucumber is bitter—Throw it away.—There are briers in the road—Turn aside from them.—This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world?
Marcus Aurelius Meditations 8.50 (8.51 in some editions)
Used in How to Deal With Life Feeling Unfair, 24 Lines to Say When You're Passed Over for a Promotion
when thou hast failed, return back again
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 5, section 9 (George Long translation)
the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 5, section 16 (George Long translation)
Used in How to Stop Overthinking: What Seneca and Marcus Did
Suppose any man shall despise me. Let him look to that himself. But I will look to this, that I be not discovered doing or saying anything deserving of contempt.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations 11.13
Used in How to Stop Taking Rejection Personally, What to Say When Dad Asks About a Proper Job: 22 Lines
Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them.
Marcus Aurelius (trans. George Long) Meditations, Book 8, section 59
Used in What Did Marcus Aurelius Say About Difficult People?
The art of life is more like the wrestler's art than the dancer's
Marcus Aurelius (trans. George Long) Meditations, Book 7, section 61
Used in 22 Things to Say When You've Been Anxious and Haven't Told Anyone
The work of a human being
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 5 (5.1)
is this necessary?
Marcus Aurelius Meditations 4.24
Used in What to Say to Your Partner About Your Overthinking: 24 Lines
he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, book 5 (5.6)
If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
Marcus Aurelius Meditations, Book 12, section 17 (George Long translation)
One man prays thus: How shall I be able to lie with that woman? Do thou pray thus: How shall I not desire to lie with her? Another prays: How shall I be released from this? Another prays: How shall I not desire to be released?
Marcus Aurelius Meditations 9.40
Some things are in our control and others not.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 1 (tr. Carter)
Used in 23 Lines for When Your Father Doesn't Approve of Your Choice
Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 8 (tr. Carter)
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 13 (tr. Carter)
Remember, that not he who gives ill language or a blow insults, but the principle which represents these things as insulting.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 20 (tr. Carter)
If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."
Epictetus Enchiridion, 33 (tr. Higginson)
First, say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus Discourses, 3.23 (tr. Carter, rev. Higginson)
Nothing great, said Epictetus, is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is.
Epictetus Discourses, 1.15 (tr. Long)
Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 5 (tr. Carter)
Used in How to Deal With Rejection: What Epictetus Knew, How to Stop Taking Rejection Personally, What to Say When Your Son Makes a Choice You Hate: 22 Lines
If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in life.
Epictetus Handbook (Enchiridion), section 23 (George Long translation)
If your brother wrongs you, do not take it by that handle, the handle of his wrong... but rather by the other handle—that he is a brother, brought up with you
Epictetus Enchiridion (Manual) 30
Used in How do I deal with a coworker who takes credit for my work?
Remember that thou art an actor in a play, of such a kind as the teacher (author) may choose... For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part, belongs to another.
Epictetus Enchiridion 17
Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
Epictetus Enchiridion, ch. 1 (George Long translation, 1877)
Used in How Do I Let Go of What I Can't Control?, How to Stop Caring What Other People Think, How to Stop Worrying About Things You Can't Control
But how did I treat of that particular matter?
Epictetus (a student in his Discourses) Discourses 3.23 (To those who read and discuss for the sake of ostentation)
Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that something is carried round and is opposite to you. Stretch out your hand and take a portion with decency.
Epictetus Handbook (Enchiridion), section 15 (George Long translation)
Who are they by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not those of whom you are used to say, that they are mad? Well then do you wish to be admired by madmen?
Epictetus Discourses 1.21 (Against those who wish to be admired)
For if it is not right to do it, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?
Epictetus Enchiridion 35
Appearances, wait for me a little: let me see who you are, and what you are about: let me put you to the test.
Epictetus Discourses 2.18.24 (the page says 'roughly'; no translation named)
Used in How to Stop Overthinking: What Seneca and Marcus Did, What to Say When You Were Passed Over: 25 Lines
Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting.
Epictetus Enchiridion 20
Used in 22 Things to Say When Your Dad Keeps Digging at Your Job
Wait for me a little, impression. Let me see what you are, and what is at stake: let me test you.
Epictetus Discourses 2.18
Used in What to Say to Your Partner About Your Overthinking: 24 Lines
Never say of anything, "I have lost it"; but, "I have returned it." Is your child dead? It is returned.
Epictetus Enchiridion, 11 (page cites no translation; the page gives 'I have given it back' in place of 'I have lost it')
Used in What to Say When Your Son Makes a Choice You Hate: 22 Lines
If, then, you wish not to be choleric, do not feed the angry habit, do not add fuel to the fire. To begin with, keep quiet, and count the days when you were not angry.
Epictetus Discourses 2.18
Hold every hour in your grasp.
Seneca Moral Letters, 1 (tr. Gummere)
Everywhere means nowhere.
Seneca Moral Letters, 2 (tr. Gummere)
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Seneca Moral Letters, 2 (tr. Gummere)
Used in How Do I Stop Stressing About Money and Debt?, How Much Money Is Enough? What Seneca Said, Why Do I Feel Empty After Achieving My Goals?, What to Say to Your Partner When Work Took Over: 26 Lines
When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment.
Seneca Moral Letters, 3 (tr. Gummere)
I feel, my dear Lucilius, that I am being not only reformed, but transformed.
Seneca Moral Letters, 6 (tr. Gummere)
Men learn while they teach.
Seneca Moral Letters, 7 (tr. Gummere)
If you would be loved, love.
Seneca (quoting Hecato) Moral Letters, 9 (tr. Gummere)
If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.
Seneca (quoting Epicurus) Moral Letters, 16 (tr. Gummere)
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition that I feared?"
Seneca Moral Letters, 18 (tr. Gummere)
You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
Seneca Moral Letters, 28 (tr. Gummere)
When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
Seneca Moral Letters, 71 (tr. Gummere)
Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long.
Seneca On the Shortness of Life, 2 (tr. Basore)
The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day.
Seneca On the Shortness of Life, 9 (tr. Basore)
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
Seneca On Anger, II.29 (tr. Stewart)
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.
Seneca On the Shortness of Life, 1 (tr. Basore)
Used in How Do I Stop Wasting My Life? Start With Seneca's Audit
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, 13 (tr. Gummere)
Used in How Do I Stop Worrying About the Future?, 23 Lines for Telling Someone You're Struggling After a Setback, What to Say to Your Partner About Your Overthinking: 24 Lines
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 (Moral Letters), Letter 13, Gummere translation
Used in How Do I Stop Being So Anxious Around People?, How to Stop Overthinking: What Seneca and Marcus Did, 22 Things to Say When You've Been Anxious and Haven't Told Anyone
let us go to our sleep with joy and gladness; let us say: I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me Is finished.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12 (Gummere translation)
Used in How Do I Stop Wasting My Life? Start With Seneca's Audit
Let not the eyes be dry when we have lost a friend, nor let them overflow; we may weep, but we must not wail.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, Letter 63 (Gummere translation)
Used in How to Get Over a Breakup: What Seneca Would Tell You
Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius (Moral Epistles), Letter 75, §4, Gummere translation
Used in How to Have a Difficult Conversation You've Been Avoiding, 23 Things to Say When Dad Shouldn't Be Driving Anymore
Fortune has no jurisdiction over character.
Seneca Letters (Moral Letters to Lucilius), cf. Letter 36.6
more often in imagination than in reality
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, trans. Richard Gummere
Animum debes mutare, non caelum.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales), 28.1
So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it.
Seneca On the Shortness of Life (De Brevitate Vitae), ch. 1
Used in 22 Things to Say When You've Been Busy and Absent at Home
Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, Letter 1 (Gummere translation)
Used in 23 lines for asking your boss to let you leave at five
Is this the condition that I feared?
Seneca Letters to Lucilius, Letter 18 (Gummere translation)
Used in 23 lines for asking your boss to let you leave at five
How long are we to go on doing the same thing?
Seneca On Tranquillity of Mind (De Tranquillitate Animi) 2.15, 'Quousque eadem?'
I will set sail unless anything happens to prevent me, I shall be praetor, if nothing hinders me, my financial operations will succeed, unless anything goes wrong with them.
Seneca On Benefits 4.34 / On Tranquillity of Mind 13
Used in What to Say When Dad Asks About a Proper Job: 22 Lines
set yourself free for your own sake
Seneca Letters to Lucilius (Epistulae Morales), letter 1 (Gummere translation)
Used in What to Say When You Need Time to Yourself: 24 Lines
Let him be only a man for once; for neither philosophy nor empire takes away natural feeling.
Antoninus Pius (about Marcus Aurelius mourning his tutor) Historia Augusta, Life of Antoninus Pius 10.5
Used in 22 things to say to your brother after Dad's funeral
For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, ch. 1 (trans. W. D. Ross)
as the saying goes, you cannot get to know a man till you have consumed the proverbial amount of salt in his company
Aristotle (citing an old proverb) Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII (ch. 3 in Rackham/Bekker 1156b)
anyone can get angry—that is easy—or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics II.9 (1109a27)
Used in 24 Lines to Say When You're Passed Over for a Promotion, What to Text Your Ex When You Need Space: 22 Lines
we have to forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to become like other people.
Arthur Schopenhauer Counsels and Maxims (tr. Saunders)
Lost time is never found again.
Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack, 1748
What good shall I do this day?
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography, the plan for the day (the 'Morning Question')
Used in How Do I Stop Wasting My Life? Start With Seneca's Audit
What good have I done to-day?
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography, the plan for the day (the 'Evening Question')
Used in How Do I Stop Wasting My Life? Start With Seneca's Audit
Remember that time is money.
Benjamin Franklin Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One (1748)
Used in 23 lines for asking your boss to let you leave at five
certainly / I imagine / it appears to me (Franklin dropping words like 'certainly' and saying 'I imagine' or 'it appears to me')
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
Used in What to Say to Your Partner About Your Overthinking: 24 Lines
it appears to me
Benjamin Franklin The Autobiography (on stating opinions with modest diffidence)
I conceive / I imagine
Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
Used in What to Say When Dad Asks About a Proper Job: 22 Lines
The Master said, "To have faults and not to reform them,-this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults."
Confucius Analects 15.30 (Legge translation)
In serving his parents, a son may remonstrate with them, but gently; when he sees that they do not incline to follow his advice, he shows an increased degree of reverence, but does not abandon his purpose; and should they punish him, he does not allow himself to murmur.
Confucius Analects 4.18
Used in What to Say When Dad Asks About a Proper Job: 22 Lines
Accustom thyself to believe that death is nothing to us.
Epicurus Letter to Menoeceus (tr. Hicks)
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.
Epicurus Vatican Sayings, 35
Nothing is sufficient for him to whom what is sufficient seems too little.
Epicurus Vatican Sayings, 68
On this blissful day, which is also the last of my life, I write this to you. My continual sufferings from strangury and dysentery are so great that nothing could augment them; but over against them all I set gladness of mind at the remembrance of our past conversations.
Epicurus Letter to Idomeneus, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 10.22
Used in 22 things to say to your brother after Dad's funeral
We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.
Epicurus Vatican Sayings 34
Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, far the greatest is the possession of friendship.
Epicurus Principal Doctrines 27
You must reflect carefully beforehand with whom you are to eat and drink, rather than what you are to eat and drink.
Epicurus (as passed on by Seneca) Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 19.10 (quoting Epicurus, Usener fr. 542)
Send me a little pot of cheese, that, when I like, I may fare sumptuously.
Epicurus Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers X.11 (letter of Epicurus)
If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Frederick Douglass West India Emancipation speech (1857)
If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.
Friedrich Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols, Maxims 12 (tr. Ludovici)
That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Missiles 8 (tr. Ludovici)
Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.
Friedrich Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols (Götzen-Dämmerung), Maxims and Arrows (Sprüche und Pfeile), 8
Used in What Nietzsche Really Meant by What Doesn't Kill You
What does not kill me, makes me stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows, no. 8
Used in 23 Lines for Telling Someone You're Struggling After a Setback
from the military school of life
Friedrich Nietzsche Twilight of the Idols, Maxims and Arrows, no. 8 (heading)
Used in 23 Lines for Telling Someone You're Struggling After a Setback
Cease to hope, and you will cease to fear.
Hecato of Rhodes, quoted by Seneca Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 5.7
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Kahlil Gibran The Prophet, 'On Children' (1923)
Used in What to Say to Your Kid Before They Leave Home: 23 Lines
The journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, 64 (tr. Legge)
He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, 33 (tr. Legge)
It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full.
Laozi Tao Te Ching, ch. 9 (James Legge translation, 1891)
When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep.
Michel de Montaigne Essays, III.13 (Of Experience)
Used in How Do I Figure Out Who I Am in My 40s?, What to Say When You Need Time to Yourself: 24 Lines
Que sais-je?
Michel de Montaigne Essays, II.12 (Apology for Raymond Sebond); motto on his medal
The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is his own.
Montaigne Essays, Of Solitude (tr. Cotton)
Used in How Do I Figure Out Who I Am in My 40s?, What to Say When You Need Time to Yourself: 24 Lines
Let us go to Aricia then, he said, and dine.
Paconius Agrippinus (as reported by Epictetus) Epictetus, Discourses 1.1 (Agrippinus anecdote)
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
Theodore Roosevelt Citizenship in a Republic (speech, 1910)
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena
Theodore Roosevelt "Citizenship in a Republic", speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
who errs, and comes short again and again
Theodore Roosevelt Citizenship in a Republic, speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming
Theodore Roosevelt Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena"), speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
Used in What to Say to Your Parents When You Lose Your Job: 22 Lines
Many are, but a lot are paraphrases, modern lines or misattributions passed from one quote site to the next. Every quote on this page was checked against a full text of the work it comes from, in a public-domain translation, and links to where it was checked.
They come from public-domain translations, most from the 1800s and early 1900s, so they can be quoted word for word and checked by anyone. Modern translations read more easily but are still under copyright.
The idea, from the first line of Epictetus's Enchiridion, that some things are in our control and others are not, and that peace comes from putting your effort only into the first kind: your own judgments, choices and actions.
The three whose writings survive in full are Seneca, a Roman statesman; Epictetus, a former slave who became a teacher; and Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor. Their books are the source of almost every Stoic quote you'll see.
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