You must stop blaming God, and not blame any person. You must completely control your desire and shift your avoidance to what lies within your reasoned choice. You must no longer feel anger, resentment, envy or regret.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 3.22.13
At this moment you aren't on a journey, but wandering about, being driven from place to place, even though what you seek -- to live well -- is found in all places. Is there any place more full of confusion than the Forum? Yet even there you can live at peace, if needed.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 28.5b-6a
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said. Why ponder the existence of nuisance? Such thinking would make you a laughing-stock to the true student of Nature, just as a carpenter or cobbler would laugh if you pointed out the sawdust and chips on the floors of their shops. Yet while those shopkeepers have dustbins for disposal, Nature has no need of them.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.50
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Trust me, real joy is a serious thing. Do you think someone can, in the charming expression, blithely dismiss death with an easy disposition? Or swing open the door to poverty, keep pleasures in check, or meditate on the endurance of suffering? The one who is comfortable with thurning these thoughts over is truly full of joy, but hardly cheerful. It's exactly such a joy that I would wish for you to possess, for it will never run dry once you've laid claim to its source.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 23.4
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Some people are sharp and others are dull; some are raised in a better environment, others in worse, the latter, having inferior habits and nurture, will require more by way of proof and careful instruction to master these teachings and to be formed by them -- in the same way that bodies in a bad state must be given a great deal of care when perfect health is sought.
-- Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 1.1.33-1.3.1-3
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage -- in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice -- I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this great good you've found.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.6.1
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
That's why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 2.9.13-14
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
The proper work of the mind is the exercise of choice, refusal, yearning, replusion, preparation, purpose, and assent. What then can pollute and clog the mind's proper functioning? Nothing but its own corrupt decisions.
-- Epictetus, Discourses, 4.11.6-7
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they'll do it even if causes them injury; they'll do it even if it will bring danger. Again, they won't do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base.
-- Seneca, Moral Letters, 76.18
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Whenever you have trouble getting up in the morning, remind yourself that you've been made by nature for the purpose of working with others, whereas even unthinking animals share sleeping. And it's our own natural purpose that is more fitting and more satisfying.
-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.12
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
