These stoic quotes will inspire you. “Stoic” commonly refers to someone who is indifferent to pain, pleasure, grief, or joy.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging stoic quotes, stoic sayings, and stoic proverbs.
Best Stoic Quotes
- “Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics.” ~ Bertrand Russell.
- “But then my mother, who’s a very selfless, stoic person from a family of Marines, would tell us that what was good for our father was good for us – he would make more money; therefore, we’d be able to get better educations.” ~ Patricia Richardson.
- “Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christian but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity.” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer
- “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
-
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.” ~ Epictetus
- “People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.” ~ Epictetus
- “A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.” ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” ~ Epictetus
- “So I should say that civilizations begin with religion and stoicism: they end with scepticism and unbelief, and the undisciplined pursuit of individual pleasure. A civilization is born stoic and dies epicurean.” ~ Will Durant
-
“What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.” ~ Seneca the Younger
- “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” ~ Marcus Aurelius , Stoic quotes on death
- “A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation…you have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.” ~ Seneca the Younger
- “When you’re wearing an animal costume and something bad happens, your facial expression doesn’t change. The animal is deadpan the whole time. If you’re skiing in a gorilla suit and you fall, you just see a gorilla who has no emotion. It’s just a stoic gorilla, wildly falling down a hill, out of control.” ~ Demetri Martin , Stoic quotes on control
- “Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive. The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all, and to burst with boldness and good-will into the silent sea of their souls is often to confer on them the first of obligations.” ~ Charlotte Bronte
-
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” ~ Epictetus
- “Fate permitting” is a standard Stoic phrase meant to remind ourselves that planning things is up to us, but the ultimate outcomes are not under our control. It helps us to develop an attitude of equanimity toward the universe. We should very much try to change things for the better, that’s the whole point of the Stoic discipline of action.” ~ Massimo Pigliucci , Stoic quotes on change
- “A good social system is not to be secured by making people unselfish, but, by making their own vital impulses fit in with other peoples. This is feasible. Those who have produced stoic philosophies have all had enough to eat and drink. I feel I shall find the truth on my deathbed and be surrounded by people too stupid to understand—fussing about medicines instead of searching for wisdom. I hate being all tidy like a book in a library where nobody reads – prison is horribly like that.” ~ Bertrand Russell
- “To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games or contests.” ~ Emily Post
- “Yeah, and so Max and Dylan are supposed to, like, go to Germany and have kids together,” I heard Gazzy say. My eyes popped open and I bolted upright. “What?” Fang said, his voice icy. “Gazzy!” I yelled. Wide blue eyes looked at me in surprise, then back at Fang’s stoic face. “Oh. Was I not supposed to say anything?” Gazzy asked.” ~ James Patterson
-
“From forty to fifty a man is at heart either a stoic or a satyr.” ~ Arthur Wing Pinero
- “As a stoic I must despise injury or, rather, I must not feel it, must not be affected by it so that it cannot violate the freedom of my soul.” ~ Alexandra David-Neel
- “Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.” ~ Seneca the Younger
- “I don’t see any Stoic practice as problematic or risky, but I would advise to engage in extreme versions of the negative visualization exercise only if you are an advanced practitioner. The negative visualization is a meditation during which you visualize, slowly and deliberately, something bad or discomforting happening to you.” ~ Massimo Pigliucci
- “If the essence of cynicism consists in preferring nature to art, virtue to beauty and science; in not bothering about the letter of things — to which the Stoic strictly adheres — but in looking up to the spirit of things; in absolute contempt of all economic values and political splendor, and in courageous defence of the rights of independent freedom; then Christianity would be nothing but universal cynicism.” ~ Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
-
“The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted.” ~ D. H. Lawrence
- “So all that is said of the wise man by Stoic or Oriental or modern essayist, describes to each reader his own idea, describes his unattained but attainable self.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “The Stoic discipline of action, which is connected to the virtue of justice, says that we ought to treat others fairly and we should engage in social and political activity. This is further supported by the Stoic idea of cosmopolitanism, and by the famous “circles of concern” identified by Hierocles, who counseled that we should refer to other people as brothers and sisters, to constantly remind ourselves that we are members of the same human family.” ~ Massimo Pigliucci
- “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “Normal people think we’re highly dependent and can’t live without ongoing support, but in fact there are times when we’re stoic heroes.” ~ Naoki Higashida
-
“A civilization is born Stoic and dies Epicurean.” ~ Will Durant
- “I practice stoic philosophy. As a human being, you may have emotions, but these don’t need to affect your soul. The two are not one.” ~ Daphne Guinness
- “To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its world view and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel.” ~ Julian Baggini
- “From here on out, there’s just reality. I think that’s what maturity is: a stoic response to endless reality. But then, what do I know?” ~ Carrie Fisher
- “If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence – these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.” ~ David Simon
-
“Christianity is in no way a stoic faith. It fundamentally rejects the “stiff upper lip” school of thought.” ~ Tullian Tchividjian
- “The Stoic assures us that what is happening now will happen over and over again. [If so, Providende would] ultimately grow weary through despair.” ~ Bertrand Russell
- “He [Ryan white] spoke to me that my life was out of order. My life was a mess. I had no values anymore. And he was so stoic with his infection. He wasn’t bitter. He wasn’t angry. He just was a kid. He wanted to go to school and play football, drive his car. And he had no bitterness about him.” ~ Elton John
- “See, I don’t expect to win a prize for stoic control and dignity at mourning time. Death deserve tantrums. Beating back shocked indignation, kicks in the groin, stones, classified unacceptable, not to be tolerated, not to be wooed, not to be conspired with. Only then can music, dance, movies, plays, rap be about life. Only then can life be cherished and adored.” ~ Ruby Dee , Stoic quotes on life
- “Our (the Stoic) motto, as you know, is live according to nature.” ~ Seneca the Younger
-
“Hit the nail on the head.” ~ John Heywood
- “The two of them were stoic and stone-faced and ten feet apart, currently not even looking at each other, but Zuzana had the impression of a pair of magnets pretending not to be magnets. Which, you know, only works until it doesn’t.” ~ Laini Taylor
- “Let a stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of stoic resignation to necessity, or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.” ~ William James , Stoic quotes on happiness
- “Even the most stoic of men will be childlike at least once in a day.” ~ Claire Bloom
-
“After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.” ~ Jamie Ford
- “I’ve sat in sushi bars, really fine ones, and I know how hard this guy worked, how proud he is. I know you don’t need sauce. I know he doesn’t even want you to pour sauce. And I’ve seen customers come in and do that, and I’ve seen him, as stoic as he tries to remain, I’ve seen him die a little inside.” ~ Anthony Bourdain
- “A bleak, black book, it engenders awe and despair. I have read it in its entirety 4 1/2 times, each time finding its resonance and beauty so great as to demand another reading. As I read, I found myself devastated by the thoroughness of the book’s annihilating sensibility and revived by the beauty of its language, the complexity of its design, the melancholy, horror and stoic sympathy in its rendering of what we used to call the human condition.” ~ Michael Silverblatt
- “Her lie was symptomatic of a certain pride she took in mocking the romantic, in being unsentimental, matter-of-fact, stoic; yet at heart she was the oppo site: idealistic, dreamy, giving, and deeply attached to everything she liked verbally to dismiss as “mushy.” ~ Alain de Botton
- “The guy behind the counter scratches his neck. “Are you being serious?” Her face is stoic. “Absolutely. I never kid about teddy bears.” ~ Jessica Sorensen
-
“[Christianity] neither enjoins the nastiness of the Cynic, nor the insensibility of the Stoic.” ~ George Berkeley
- “God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future–to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.” ~ Jeffrey R. Holland , Stoic quotes love
- “When I think of Britain, I don’t think of these lofty ideals which once held sway like the stoic upper lip. I think of girls on a Saturday night outside kebab shops stabbing each other with stiletto heels or guys smashing glasses into someone’s face. I think of shows like Big Brother which celebrate people’s discomfort and anguish or kids committing these terrifying happy slapping acts of brutality to each other at the drop of a hat.” ~ Kele Okereke
- “You’re a pretty cool customer, huh?” says Agent Hunt. “I hide my inner pain under my stoic visage.” Agent Hunt looks like he would like to put his fist through my stoic visage.” ~ Holly Black
- “Does Christ commend the famous ‘apathy’ of the Stoic or the Buddhist elimination of desire? Far from it. The issue is not just feeling or desire, but right feeling or desire, or being controlled by feeling or desire.” ~ Dallas Willard
-
“Black Bolt is typically a stoic leader, part of a larger cast of Inhumans who get their hands dirty in ways that he doesn’t.” ~ Charles Soule
- “I’ve intentionally played things very straight with Batman. I didn’t want to be too jarring for fans. Zero Year accommodates a bit more style. But, on the whole, I feel Batman – a stoic, methodical, detective – is better served a wee bit reserved. And, I’m anything but comfortable. Zero Year is pressure, man.” ~ Greg Capullo
- “Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: ‘You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert
-
“An aristocratic culture does not advertise its emotions. In its forms of expression, it is sober and reserved. Its general attitude is stoic.” ~ Johan Huizinga
- “I think also just being from the Midwest, my dad was a stoic Midwesterner, he always told me never take anything for granted and you have to work for what you get so. That’s funny because my friend Frank Anderson said something really funny he goes, “A lot of the people from the midwest are the laziest shits I’ve ever met.” And he’s right. I know some. You can’t say its a stereotype that only people from the Midwest are that way because there are definitely people I know who hate to work and just want to hang out and drink beer.” ~ Butch Vig
- “The problem a lot of writers have is that they really enjoy people saying, “You’re brilliant.” They let their self-perception be dictated by reader response. But if you’re going to let other people make you feel good, you’re going to end up feeling bad when they say the opposite. You’ve got to be a cultural stoic. Then you won’t be devastated by people who respond negatively. Of course, the downside is that it sort of stops you from being able to enjoy people liking your work.” ~ Chuck Klosterman
