Atharva31/Quotes_Collection · Datasets at Hugging Face

Unnamed: 0 int64 0 7.68k	quote stringlengths 1 3.91k	tags stringclasses 3 values
7,622	“Most of us are “living the dream” living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves.”	stoicism
7,286	“Destroying your mirrors leaves your facial blemishes intact.”	stoicism
7,283	“For some reason, there is this façade that life should be full of happiness and without its suffering. Which, actually makes us suffer even more. Because when we get sad or something bad happens, we do not only feel bad about the thing itself but we also feel bad because our life is not the way it is supposed to be. Not realizing suffering and sadness is just a part of life and they are inevitable.”	stoicism
6,791	“Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope … and you will cease to fear.’ … Widely different [as fear and hope] are, the two of them march in unison like a prisoner and the escort he is handcuffed to. Fear keeps pace with hope … both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present.”	stoicism
6,881	“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.”	stoicism
6,826	“Whatever happens, happens such as you are either formed by nature able to bear it, or not able to bear it. If such as you are by nature form’d able to bear, bear it and fret not: But if such as you are not naturally able to bear, don’t fret; for when it has consum’d you, itself will perish. Remember, however, you are by nature form’d able to bear whatever it is in the power of your own opinion to make supportable or tolerable, according as you conceive it advantageous, or your duty, to do so.”	stoicism
6,835	“The stoics divided philosophy into three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. Logic covered not only the rules of correct argumentation, but also grammar, linguistics, rhetorical theory, epistemology, and all the tools that might be needed to discover the truth of any matter. Physics was concerned with the nature of the world and the laws that govern it, and so included ontology and theology as well as what we would recognize as physics, astronomy, and cosmology. Ethics was concerned with how to achieve happiness, or how to live a fulfilled and flourishing life as a human being. A stoic sage was supposed to be fully expert in all three aspects.”	stoicism
7,611	“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”	stoicism
6,867	“But there can be no such good except as the soul discovers it for itself within itself.”	stoicism
6,913	“The world is asking us the questions, and it couldn’t care less what we expect from it. But here’s the good news: real meaning doesn’t come from what the world gives you, but how you respond to it.”	stoicism
7,649	“Hour by hour resolve firmly to do what comes to hand with dignity, and with humanity, independence, and justice. Allow your mind freedom from all other considerations. This you can do, if you will approach each action as though it were your last, dismissing the desire to create an impression, the admiration of self, the discontent with your lot. See how little man needs to master, for his days to flow on in quietness and piety: he has but to observe these few counsels, and the gods will ask nothing more.”	stoicism
7,204	“The mind, unconquered by violent passions, is a citadel, for a man has no fortress more impregnable in which to find refuge and remain safe forever.”	stoicism
7,406	“We should not use philosophy like a herbal remedy, to be discarded when we're through. Rather, we must allow philosophy to remain with us, continually guarding our judgements throughout life, forming part of our daily regimen, like eating a nutritious diet or taking phisical exercise.”	stoicism
7,448	“I began to care a lot less about embarrassment after running into somebody who for months, I feared I would, and realizing afterward that my life was no different after the encounter than before.”	stoicism
6,855	“I will keep a watch on myself straightway and—the most useful step—review my day. The fact that we do not look back over our lives makes us worse. We ponder—though rarely—what we are to do, but we do not ponder at all what we have done—and yet planning for the future depends on the past.”	stoicism
7,357	“The thing whose acquisition ‘made’ you happy need not be stolen, lost, or broken for ‘it’ to make you unhappy.”	stoicism
7,113	“It was for the best. So Nature had no choice but to do it.”	stoicism
7,063	“Difficulty is the foundation of growth, which is the foundation of greatness.”	stoicism
7,340	“Heartless’ is a label that is all too often wrongly given to someone who is rational by someone who is emotional.”	stoicism
7,419	“Let me indicate here how men can prove that their words are their own: let them put their preaching into practice”	stoicism
7,380	“To some of us, these are the good old days in the making.”	stoicism
7,473	“She looks as if she were thinking of something beyond her punishment—beyond her situation: of something not round nor before her.”	stoicism
7,012	“Well, when do we act like sheep: when we act for the sake of the belly, or of our sex-organs, or at random, or in a filthy fashion, or without due consideration, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of sheep.”	stoicism
7,600	“Each of us is impermanent wave of energy folded into the infinite cosmic order. Acknowledgement of the fundamental impermanence of ourselves unchains us from the strictures of living a terrestrial life stuck like a needle vacillating between the magnetic pull of endless desire and the terror of death. Once we achieve freedom from any craving and all desires and we are relieved of all titanic fears, we release ourselves from living in perpetual distress. Once we rid ourselves from any impulse to exist, we discover our true place in the universal order. The composition of our life filament is exactly right when we accept the notion of living and dying with equal stoicism.”	stoicism
7,330	“We have, not problems, but negative attitudes towards some situations (towards which some people have or would have positive attitudes).”	stoicism
6,801	“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”	stoicism
7,160	“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much… The life we receive is not short but we make it so”	stoicism
7,046	“Things we wouldn't be willing to pay for if it meant giving up our house for them, or some pleasant or productive estate, we are quite ready to obtain at the cost of anxiety, of danger, of losing our freedom, our decency, our time.”	stoicism
7,301	“Some of the people who we think care that we hate them do not even care that there are people who love them.”	stoicism
6,923	“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it. It's unfortunate that this has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it - not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it. Why treat the one as a misfortune rather than the other as fortunate? Can you really call something a misfortune that doesn't violate human nature? Or do you think something that's not against nature's will can violate it? But you know what its will is. Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all the other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfil itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.”	stoicism
7,152	“It takes the whole of life to learn how to live... it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.”	stoicism
6,837	“All Hellenistic schools seem to define [wisdom] in approximately the same terms: first and foremost, as a state of perfect peace of mind. From this viewpoint, philosophy appears as a remedy for human worries, anguish, and misery brought about, for the Cynics, by social constraints and conventions; for the Epicureans, by the quest for false pleasures; for the Stoics, by the pursuit of pleasure and egoistic self-interest; and for the Skeptics, by false opinions. Whether or not they laid claim to the Socratic heritage, all Hellenistic philosophers agreed with Socrates that human beings are plunged in misery, anguish, and evil because they exist in ignorance. Evil is to be found not within things, but in the value judgments with people bring to bear upon things. People can therefore be cured of their ills only if they are persuaded to change their value judgments, and in this sense all these philosophies wanted to be therapeutic.”	stoicism
7,647	“If you apply yourself to study you will avoid all boredom with life, you will not long for night because you are sick of daylight, you will be neither a burden to yourself nor useless to others, you will attract many to become your friends and the finest people will flock about you.”	stoicism
7,653	“Why be concerned about others, come to that, when you've outdone your own self? Set yourself a limit which you couldn't even exceed if you wanted to, and say good-bye at last to those deceptive prizes more precious to those who hope for them than to those who have won them. If there were anything substantial in them they would sooner or later bring a sense of fullness; as it is they simply aggravate the thirst of those who swallow them.”	stoicism
6,983	“Do not trust her seeming calm; in a moment the sea is moved to its depths.”	stoicism
7,424	“Resent a thing by all means if it represents an injustice decreed against yourself personally; but if this same constraint is binding on the lowest and the highest alike, then make your peace again with destiny, the destiny that unravels all ties.”	stoicism
7,145	“The world is maintained by change- in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom.”	stoicism
7,513	“Those who died quietly asleep are not less dead than those who were killed awake by bombs.”	stoicism
6,982	“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waist a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficient generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we know it was passing”	stoicism
6,848	“We are good to others only because we think that that is, or will be, good for us.”	stoicism
7,495	“Where you arrive does not matter as much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there.”	stoicism
7,397	“The most common act of violence is the relentless mental violence we perpetrate upon ourselves with nothing other than our thoughts.”	stoicism
7,373	“The wise remind themselves that ‘This too shall pass’ even when things are good; the foolish, only when things are bad.”	stoicism
7,551	“When you pursue wisdom, you will soon realize how much you don’t know. Your knowledge will be incomplete, but continually developing through your curiosity. Arrogance blocks new information from coming in. When you’re conceited, you’ll resist change, and struggle to preserve your fixed image. Don’t fall into smug idleness, used to comfort. Challenge what you think you know, not caring if other people see you as a fool. Progress daily in your own uncertainty.”	stoicism
7,150	“Funerals greatly exaggerate the pleasantness of being alive, while they prevent us from thinking about the advantages of being dead.”	stoicism
7,449	“If a discrepancy exists between supply and demand, then for the Stoics the prescription for a happy life was to decrease demand, not to increase supply (or production), which the Hedonists saw as the prescription for a happy life.”	stoicism
6,827	“he saw and recognised the visible and he sought his place in this world. He did not seek reality; his goal was not on any other side. The world was beautiful when looked at in this way - without any seeking, so simple, so childlike. The moon and stars were beautiful, the brook, the shore, the forest and rock, the goat and the golden beetle, the flower and butterfly were beautiful. It was beautiful and pleasant to go through the world like that, so childlike, so awakened, so concerned with the immediate, without any distrust.”	stoicism
7,565	“Suffering and happiness are not mutually exclusive.”	stoicism
6,795	“Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated.”	stoicism
7,650	“And here lies the essential difference between Stoicism and the modern-day 'cult of optimism.' For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was tranquility, not the excitable cheer that positive thinkers usually seem to mean when they use the word, 'happiness.' And tranquility was to be achieved not by strenuously chasing after enjoyable experiences, but by cultivating a kind of calm indifference towards one's circumstances.”	stoicism
7,216	“Some people would be ashamed of driving the cars, or living in the houses, some people are showing off.”	stoicism
6,835	“The stoics divided philosophy into three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. Logic covered not only the rules of correct argumentation, but also grammar, linguistics, rhetorical theory, epistemology, and all the tools that might be needed to discover the truth of any matter. Physics was concerned with the nature of the world and the laws that govern it, and so included ontology and theology as well as what we would recognize as physics, astronomy, and cosmology. Ethics was concerned with how to achieve happiness, or how to live a fulfilled and flourishing life as a human being. A stoic sage was supposed to be fully expert in all three aspects.”	stoicism
7,529	“The person you are mad at for being late could be dead.”	stoicism
7,023	“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”	stoicism
7,668	“The Greeks not only face facts. They have no desire to escape from them.”	stoicism
6,813	“It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.”	stoicism
6,866	“Wir müssen uns weigern, die Karten, die uns ausgeteilt wurden, über unser Wohlbefinden entscheiden zu lassen.”	stoicism
7,323	“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”	stoicism
6,996	“Which of us does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young citizen had put out his eye, and been handed over to him by the people to be punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: "I received this young man at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in his right mind and fit to serve his country.”	stoicism
7,543	“Some of the things we fear exist nowhere but where fear happens.”	stoicism
7,448	“I began to care a lot less about embarrassment after running into somebody who for months, I feared I would, and realizing afterward that my life was no different after the encounter than before.”	stoicism
7,205	“There is no correlation between the degree to which you are confident that you are right and the chances of you not being wrong.”	stoicism
7,560	“Sometimes we have no luxury of choice. We must do certain things for survival. That should not stop us from doing the things we love.”	stoicism
7,370	“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not yet come? Don’t stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don’t even take the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire.”	stoicism
7,148	“Marcus wept when he was told that his favorite tutor had passed away. We know that he cried one day in court, when he was overseeing a case and the attorney mentioned the countless souls who perished in the plague still ravaging Rome. We can imagine Marcus cried many other times. This was a man who was betrayed by one of his most trusted generals. This was a man who one day lost his wife of thirty-five years. This was a man who lost eight children, including all but one of his sons. Marcus didn’t weep because he was weak. He didn’t weep because he was un-Stoic. He cried because he was human. Because these very painful experiences made him sad. “Neither philosophy nor empire,” Antoninus said sympathetically as he let his son sob, “takes away natural feeling.” So Marcus Aurelius must have lost his temper on occasion, or he never would have had cause to write in his Meditations.”	stoicism
6,947	“When we first wake up our minds are clear, which makes this the opportune time to direct our focus inwards, to organize our thoughts and to set our daily intentions through a few moments of meditation. Our duties and obligations have not yet begun to crowd our schedule, and the clarity of the dawn creates an open, undistracted mental space.”	stoicism
7,196	“Whoever then has knowledge of good things, would know how to love them; but how could one who cannot distinguish good things from evil and things indifferent from both have power to love?”	stoicism
7,478	“Every second is a step away from our mothers’ wombs towards our own tombs.”	stoicism
7,076	“Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”	stoicism
7,548	“They who always expect the worst are almost always pleasantly surprised.”	stoicism
7,273	“Si len úbohá dušička nesúca mŕtvolu,” ako vravel Epiktetos.”	stoicism
7,037	“I encouraged them to bear up against all evils, and if we must perish, to die in our own cause, and not weakly distrust the providence of the Almighty, by giving ourselves up to despair. I reasoned with them, and told them that we would not die sooner by keeping up our hopes; that the dreadful sacrifices and privations we endured were to preserve us from death, and were not to be put in competition with the price which we set upon our lives, and their value to our families: it was, besides, unmanly to repine at what neither admitted of alleviation nor cure; and withal, that it was our solemn duty to recognise in our calamities an overruling divinity, by whose mercy we might be suddenly snatched from peril, and to rely upon him alone, ‘Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb?”	stoicism
7,355	“Life is happening neither to nor for but through us.”	stoicism
6,777	“Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable all the time, if there could be no such things as love or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely certain that my love would never be returned: how much more simple life would be. One could plod through the Siberian salt mines of existence without being bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the happiness is there. There is always the chance (about eight hundred and fifty to one) that another heart will come to mine. I can't help hoping, and keeping faith, and loving beauty. Quite frequently I am not so miserable as it would be wise to be.”	stoicism
7,277	“A still person has the ability to stop, look at a news story or another person’s arguments, and ask objective questions without emotional overreaction or assumptions of ill intent. One is centered, rational, and respected; the other is frantic, unhappy, and intellectually stagnant. Don’t be the latter.”	stoicism
7,245	“Living is the outside of dying.”	stoicism
7,066	“Every goal or desire is a seed of an excuse to be unhappy.”	stoicism
6,933	“In an era characterized by incessant noise and constant distraction, we often find our minds pulled from one thought to another like a leaf in an October breeze. We are so preoccupied by modern living that we become totally disconnected from our ancient human roots in the natural world.”	stoicism
7,254	“Remind yourself that what you love is mortal … at the very moment you are taking joy in something, present yourself with the opposite impressions. What harm is it, just when you are kissing your little child, to say: Tomorrow you will die, or to your friend similarly: Tomorrow one of us will go away, and we shall not see one another any more?”	stoicism
7,366	“Stoicism is a logical philosophy.”	stoicism
6,841	“[A] resistance that dispenses with consolations is always stronger than one which relies on them.”	stoicism
7,336	“Life sometimes delays giving us the thing we are forever praying or working hard for, until it has managed to show us that that thing is not that important, or important at all.”	stoicism
7,674	“There was no sign of Plato, and I was told later that he had gone to live in his Republic , where he was cheerfully submitting to his own Laws . [...] None of the Stoics were present. Rumour had it that they were still clambering up the steep hill of Virtue [...]. As for the Sceptics, it appeared that they were extremely anxious to get there, but still could not quite make up their minds whether or not the island really existed.”	stoicism
7,328	“At the crisis of my fever, I besought Hollingsworth to let nobody else enter the room, but continually to make me sensible of his own presence… then he should be the witness how courageously I would encounter the worst. It still impresses me almost a matter of regret, that I did not die then, when I had tolerably made up my mind to do it”	stoicism
7,007	“Draconus staggered up. 'Pearl, my friend, I have come to say goodbye. And to tell you I am sorry.' 'What saddens you?' the demon asked. 'I am sorry, Pearl, for all of this. For Dragnipur. For the horror forged by my own hands. It was fitting, was it not, that the weapon claimed its maker? I think, yes, it was. It was.' He paused, and then brought both hands up to his face. For a moment it seemed he would begin clawing his beard from the skin beneath it. Instead, the shackled hands fell away, down, dragged by the weight of the chains. 'I too am sorry,' said Pearl. 'To see the end of this.' 'What?' 'So many enemies, all here and not one by choice. Enemies, and yet working together for so long. It was a wonderous thing, was it not, Draconus? When necessity forced each hand to clasp, to work as one. A wonderous thing.' The warrior stared at the demon. He seemed unable to speak.”	stoicism
6,873	“For the military community, philosophy isn't something casually debated. But something that should be fully embodied in everyday thought and action, with the abandonment of all principles not shown practical in the most extreme of environments.”	stoicism
6,979	“Milo's Way- A Haiku Strength sought in small steps, Like Milo's calf on shoulders, Grow with steady will.”	stoicism
7,323	“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”	stoicism
7,597	“You should, I need hardly say, live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.”	stoicism
7,237	“A truth is not any less truthful, when it is said by someone who did not discover, or does not understand, it.”	stoicism
7,223	“To live is to owe life to die.”	stoicism
7,037	“I encouraged them to bear up against all evils, and if we must perish, to die in our own cause, and not weakly distrust the providence of the Almighty, by giving ourselves up to despair. I reasoned with them, and told them that we would not die sooner by keeping up our hopes; that the dreadful sacrifices and privations we endured were to preserve us from death, and were not to be put in competition with the price which we set upon our lives, and their value to our families: it was, besides, unmanly to repine at what neither admitted of alleviation nor cure; and withal, that it was our solemn duty to recognise in our calamities an overruling divinity, by whose mercy we might be suddenly snatched from peril, and to rely upon him alone, ‘Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb?”	stoicism
7,155	“We each unwittingly contribute, each and every day, to the preventions and to the causes of millions of accidents.”	stoicism
7,544	“The present isn’t more capable of causing mental pain than the past or the future.”	stoicism
7,617	“...we can do some historical research to see how our ancestors lived. We will quickly discover that we are living in what to them would have been a dream world that we tend to take for granted things that our ancestors had to live without...”	stoicism
7,156	“We must say nothing, when we have nothing to say.”	stoicism
7,646	“Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.”	stoicism
7,028	“Precision of thought comes from a tranquil mindset. A presenter can have a competitive edge if they are unmoved by the jabs and provocations that are directed at them”	stoicism
7,052	“We are not the first Who with best meaning have incurred the worst. For thee, oppressèd king, I am cast down. Myself could else outfrown false Fortune’s frown.”	stoicism
7,395	“We make life even more painful by having expectations and preferences.”	stoicism

7,622

“Most of us are “living the dream” living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves.”

stoicism

7,286

“Destroying your mirrors leaves your facial blemishes intact.”

stoicism

7,283

“For some reason, there is this façade that life should be full of happiness and without its suffering. Which, actually makes us suffer even more. Because when we get sad or something bad happens, we do not only feel bad about the thing itself but we also feel bad because our life is not the way it is supposed to be. Not realizing suffering and sadness is just a part of life and they are inevitable.”

stoicism

6,791

“Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope … and you will cease to fear.’ … Widely different [as fear and hope] are, the two of them march in unison like a prisoner and the escort he is handcuffed to. Fear keeps pace with hope … both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present.”

stoicism

6,881

“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.”

stoicism

6,826

“Whatever happens, happens such as you are either formed by nature able to bear it, or not able to bear it. If such as you are by nature form’d able to bear, bear it and fret not: But if such as you are not naturally able to bear, don’t fret; for when it has consum’d you, itself will perish. Remember, however, you are by nature form’d able to bear whatever it is in the power of your own opinion to make supportable or tolerable, according as you conceive it advantageous, or your duty, to do so.”

stoicism

6,835

“The stoics divided philosophy into three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. Logic covered not only the rules of correct argumentation, but also grammar, linguistics, rhetorical theory, epistemology, and all the tools that might be needed to discover the truth of any matter. Physics was concerned with the nature of the world and the laws that govern it, and so included ontology and theology as well as what we would recognize as physics, astronomy, and cosmology. Ethics was concerned with how to achieve happiness, or how to live a fulfilled and flourishing life as a human being. A stoic sage was supposed to be fully expert in all three aspects.”

stoicism

7,611

“Some of the best things that have ever happened to us wouldn’t have happened to us, if it weren’t for some of the worst things that have ever happened to us.”

stoicism

6,867

“But there can be no such good except as the soul discovers it for itself within itself.”

stoicism

6,913

“The world is asking us the questions, and it couldn’t care less what we expect from it. But here’s the good news: real meaning doesn’t come from what the world gives you, but how you respond to it.”

stoicism

7,649

“Hour by hour resolve firmly to do what comes to hand with dignity, and with humanity, independence, and justice. Allow your mind freedom from all other considerations. This you can do, if you will approach each action as though it were your last, dismissing the desire to create an impression, the admiration of self, the discontent with your lot. See how little man needs to master, for his days to flow on in quietness and piety: he has but to observe these few counsels, and the gods will ask nothing more.”

stoicism

7,204

“The mind, unconquered by violent passions, is a citadel, for a man has no fortress more impregnable in which to find refuge and remain safe forever.”

stoicism

7,406

“We should not use philosophy like a herbal remedy, to be discarded when we're through. Rather, we must allow philosophy to remain with us, continually guarding our judgements throughout life, forming part of our daily regimen, like eating a nutritious diet or taking phisical exercise.”

stoicism

7,448

“I began to care a lot less about embarrassment after running into somebody who for months, I feared I would, and realizing afterward that my life was no different after the encounter than before.”

stoicism

6,855

“I will keep a watch on myself straightway and—the most useful step—review my day. The fact that we do not look back over our lives makes us worse. We ponder—though rarely—what we are to do, but we do not ponder at all what we have done—and yet planning for the future depends on the past.”

stoicism

7,357

“The thing whose acquisition ‘made’ you happy need not be stolen, lost, or broken for ‘it’ to make you unhappy.”

stoicism

7,113

“It was for the best. So Nature had no choice but to do it.”

stoicism

7,063

“Difficulty is the foundation of growth, which is the foundation of greatness.”

stoicism

7,340

“Heartless’ is a label that is all too often wrongly given to someone who is rational by someone who is emotional.”

stoicism

7,419

“Let me indicate here how men can prove that their words are their own: let them put their preaching into practice”

stoicism

7,380

“To some of us, these are the good old days in the making.”

stoicism

7,473

“She looks as if she were thinking of something beyond her punishment—beyond her situation: of something not round nor before her.”

stoicism

7,012

“Well, when do we act like sheep: when we act for the sake of the belly, or of our sex-organs, or at random, or in a filthy fashion, or without due consideration, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of sheep.”

stoicism

7,600

“Each of us is impermanent wave of energy folded into the infinite cosmic order. Acknowledgement of the fundamental impermanence of ourselves unchains us from the strictures of living a terrestrial life stuck like a needle vacillating between the magnetic pull of endless desire and the terror of death. Once we achieve freedom from any craving and all desires and we are relieved of all titanic fears, we release ourselves from living in perpetual distress. Once we rid ourselves from any impulse to exist, we discover our true place in the universal order. The composition of our life filament is exactly right when we accept the notion of living and dying with equal stoicism.”

stoicism

7,330

“We have, not problems, but negative attitudes towards some situations (towards which some people have or would have positive attitudes).”

stoicism

6,801

“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.”

stoicism

7,160

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much… The life we receive is not short but we make it so”

stoicism

7,046

“Things we wouldn't be willing to pay for if it meant giving up our house for them, or some pleasant or productive estate, we are quite ready to obtain at the cost of anxiety, of danger, of losing our freedom, our decency, our time.”

stoicism

7,301

“Some of the people who we think care that we hate them do not even care that there are people who love them.”

stoicism

6,923

“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it. It's unfortunate that this has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it - not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it. Why treat the one as a misfortune rather than the other as fortunate? Can you really call something a misfortune that doesn't violate human nature? Or do you think something that's not against nature's will can violate it? But you know what its will is. Does what's happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all the other qualities that allow a person's nature to fulfil itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.”

stoicism

7,152

“It takes the whole of life to learn how to live... it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.”

stoicism

6,837

“All Hellenistic schools seem to define [wisdom] in approximately the same terms: first and foremost, as a state of perfect peace of mind. From this viewpoint, philosophy appears as a remedy for human worries, anguish, and misery brought about, for the Cynics, by social constraints and conventions; for the Epicureans, by the quest for false pleasures; for the Stoics, by the pursuit of pleasure and egoistic self-interest; and for the Skeptics, by false opinions. Whether or not they laid claim to the Socratic heritage, all Hellenistic philosophers agreed with Socrates that human beings are plunged in misery, anguish, and evil because they exist in ignorance. Evil is to be found not within things, but in the value judgments with people bring to bear upon things. People can therefore be cured of their ills only if they are persuaded to change their value judgments, and in this sense all these philosophies wanted to be therapeutic.”

stoicism

7,647

“If you apply yourself to study you will avoid all boredom with life, you will not long for night because you are sick of daylight, you will be neither a burden to yourself nor useless to others, you will attract many to become your friends and the finest people will flock about you.”

stoicism

7,653

“Why be concerned about others, come to that, when you've outdone your own self? Set yourself a limit which you couldn't even exceed if you wanted to, and say good-bye at last to those deceptive prizes more precious to those who hope for them than to those who have won them. If there were anything substantial in them they would sooner or later bring a sense of fullness; as it is they simply aggravate the thirst of those who swallow them.”

stoicism

6,983

“Do not trust her seeming calm; in a moment the sea is moved to its depths.”

stoicism

7,424

“Resent a thing by all means if it represents an injustice decreed against yourself personally; but if this same constraint is binding on the lowest and the highest alike, then make your peace again with destiny, the destiny that unravels all ties.”

stoicism

7,145

“The world is maintained by change- in the elements and in the things they compose. That should be enough for you; treat it as an axiom.”

stoicism

7,513

“Those who died quietly asleep are not less dead than those who were killed awake by bombs.”

stoicism

6,982

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waist a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficient generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we know it was passing”

stoicism

6,848

“We are good to others only because we think that that is, or will be, good for us.”

stoicism

7,495

“Where you arrive does not matter as much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there.”

stoicism

7,397

“The most common act of violence is the relentless mental violence we perpetrate upon ourselves with nothing other than our thoughts.”

stoicism

7,373

“The wise remind themselves that ‘This too shall pass’ even when things are good; the foolish, only when things are bad.”

stoicism

7,551

“When you pursue wisdom, you will soon realize how much you don’t know. Your knowledge will be incomplete, but continually developing through your curiosity. Arrogance blocks new information from coming in. When you’re conceited, you’ll resist change, and struggle to preserve your fixed image. Don’t fall into smug idleness, used to comfort. Challenge what you think you know, not caring if other people see you as a fool. Progress daily in your own uncertainty.”

stoicism

7,150

“Funerals greatly exaggerate the pleasantness of being alive, while they prevent us from thinking about the advantages of being dead.”

stoicism

7,449

“If a discrepancy exists between supply and demand, then for the Stoics the prescription for a happy life was to decrease demand, not to increase supply (or production), which the Hedonists saw as the prescription for a happy life.”

stoicism

6,827

“he saw and recognised the visible and he sought his place in this world. He did not seek reality; his goal was not on any other side. The world was beautiful when looked at in this way - without any seeking, so simple, so childlike. The moon and stars were beautiful, the brook, the shore, the forest and rock, the goat and the golden beetle, the flower and butterfly were beautiful. It was beautiful and pleasant to go through the world like that, so childlike, so awakened, so concerned with the immediate, without any distrust.”

stoicism

7,565

“Suffering and happiness are not mutually exclusive.”

stoicism

6,795

“Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated.”

stoicism

7,650

“And here lies the essential difference between Stoicism and the modern-day 'cult of optimism.' For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was tranquility, not the excitable cheer that positive thinkers usually seem to mean when they use the word, 'happiness.' And tranquility was to be achieved not by strenuously chasing after enjoyable experiences, but by cultivating a kind of calm indifference towards one's circumstances.”

stoicism

7,216

“Some people would be ashamed of driving the cars, or living in the houses, some people are showing off.”

stoicism

6,835

“The stoics divided philosophy into three branches: logic, physics, and ethics. Logic covered not only the rules of correct argumentation, but also grammar, linguistics, rhetorical theory, epistemology, and all the tools that might be needed to discover the truth of any matter. Physics was concerned with the nature of the world and the laws that govern it, and so included ontology and theology as well as what we would recognize as physics, astronomy, and cosmology. Ethics was concerned with how to achieve happiness, or how to live a fulfilled and flourishing life as a human being. A stoic sage was supposed to be fully expert in all three aspects.”

stoicism

7,529

“The person you are mad at for being late could be dead.”

stoicism

7,023

“Where is the harm or surprise in the ignorant behaving as the ignorant do?”

stoicism

7,668

“The Greeks not only face facts. They have no desire to escape from them.”

stoicism

6,813

“It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.”

stoicism

6,866

“Wir müssen uns weigern, die Karten, die uns ausgeteilt wurden, über unser Wohlbefinden entscheiden zu lassen.”

stoicism

7,323

“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”

stoicism

6,996

“Which of us does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young citizen had put out his eye, and been handed over to him by the people to be punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: "I received this young man at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in his right mind and fit to serve his country.”

stoicism

7,543

“Some of the things we fear exist nowhere but where fear happens.”

stoicism

7,448

“I began to care a lot less about embarrassment after running into somebody who for months, I feared I would, and realizing afterward that my life was no different after the encounter than before.”

stoicism

7,205

“There is no correlation between the degree to which you are confident that you are right and the chances of you not being wrong.”

stoicism

7,560

“Sometimes we have no luxury of choice. We must do certain things for survival. That should not stop us from doing the things we love.”

stoicism

7,370

“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don’t stop it. Is it not yet come? Don’t stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. Do this with regard to children, to a wife, to public posts, to riches, and you will eventually be a worthy partner of the feasts of the gods. And if you don’t even take the things which are set before you, but are able even to reject them, then you will not only be a partner at the feasts of the gods, but also of their empire.”

stoicism

7,148

“Marcus wept when he was told that his favorite tutor had passed away. We know that he cried one day in court, when he was overseeing a case and the attorney mentioned the countless souls who perished in the plague still ravaging Rome. We can imagine Marcus cried many other times. This was a man who was betrayed by one of his most trusted generals. This was a man who one day lost his wife of thirty-five years. This was a man who lost eight children, including all but one of his sons. Marcus didn’t weep because he was weak. He didn’t weep because he was un-Stoic. He cried because he was human. Because these very painful experiences made him sad. “Neither philosophy nor empire,” Antoninus said sympathetically as he let his son sob, “takes away natural feeling.” So Marcus Aurelius must have lost his temper on occasion, or he never would have had cause to write in his Meditations.”

stoicism

6,947

“When we first wake up our minds are clear, which makes this the opportune time to direct our focus inwards, to organize our thoughts and to set our daily intentions through a few moments of meditation. Our duties and obligations have not yet begun to crowd our schedule, and the clarity of the dawn creates an open, undistracted mental space.”

stoicism

7,196

“Whoever then has knowledge of good things, would know how to love them; but how could one who cannot distinguish good things from evil and things indifferent from both have power to love?”

stoicism

7,478

“Every second is a step away from our mothers’ wombs towards our own tombs.”

stoicism

7,076

“Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”

stoicism

7,548

“They who always expect the worst are almost always pleasantly surprised.”

stoicism

7,273

“Si len úbohá dušička nesúca mŕtvolu,” ako vravel Epiktetos.”

stoicism

7,037

“I encouraged them to bear up against all evils, and if we must perish, to die in our own cause, and not weakly distrust the providence of the Almighty, by giving ourselves up to despair. I reasoned with them, and told them that we would not die sooner by keeping up our hopes; that the dreadful sacrifices and privations we endured were to preserve us from death, and were not to be put in competition with the price which we set upon our lives, and their value to our families: it was, besides, unmanly to repine at what neither admitted of alleviation nor cure; and withal, that it was our solemn duty to recognise in our calamities an overruling divinity, by whose mercy we might be suddenly snatched from peril, and to rely upon him alone, ‘Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb?”

stoicism

7,355

“Life is happening neither to nor for but through us.”

stoicism

6,777

“Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable all the time, if there could be no such things as love or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely certain that my love would never be returned: how much more simple life would be. One could plod through the Siberian salt mines of existence without being bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the happiness is there. There is always the chance (about eight hundred and fifty to one) that another heart will come to mine. I can't help hoping, and keeping faith, and loving beauty. Quite frequently I am not so miserable as it would be wise to be.”

stoicism

7,277

“A still person has the ability to stop, look at a news story or another person’s arguments, and ask objective questions without emotional overreaction or assumptions of ill intent. One is centered, rational, and respected; the other is frantic, unhappy, and intellectually stagnant. Don’t be the latter.”

stoicism

7,245

“Living is the outside of dying.”

stoicism

7,066

“Every goal or desire is a seed of an excuse to be unhappy.”

stoicism

6,933

“In an era characterized by incessant noise and constant distraction, we often find our minds pulled from one thought to another like a leaf in an October breeze. We are so preoccupied by modern living that we become totally disconnected from our ancient human roots in the natural world.”

stoicism

7,254

“Remind yourself that what you love is mortal … at the very moment you are taking joy in something, present yourself with the opposite impressions. What harm is it, just when you are kissing your little child, to say: Tomorrow you will die, or to your friend similarly: Tomorrow one of us will go away, and we shall not see one another any more?”

stoicism

7,366

“Stoicism is a logical philosophy.”

stoicism

6,841

“[A] resistance that dispenses with consolations is always stronger than one which relies on them.”

stoicism

7,336

“Life sometimes delays giving us the thing we are forever praying or working hard for, until it has managed to show us that that thing is not that important, or important at all.”

stoicism

7,674

“There was no sign of Plato, and I was told later that he had gone to live in his Republic , where he was cheerfully submitting to his own Laws . [...] None of the Stoics were present. Rumour had it that they were still clambering up the steep hill of Virtue [...]. As for the Sceptics, it appeared that they were extremely anxious to get there, but still could not quite make up their minds whether or not the island really existed.”

stoicism

7,328

“At the crisis of my fever, I besought Hollingsworth to let nobody else enter the room, but continually to make me sensible of his own presence… then he should be the witness how courageously I would encounter the worst. It still impresses me almost a matter of regret, that I did not die then, when I had tolerably made up my mind to do it”

stoicism

7,007

“Draconus staggered up. 'Pearl, my friend, I have come to say goodbye. And to tell you I am sorry.' 'What saddens you?' the demon asked. 'I am sorry, Pearl, for all of this. For Dragnipur. For the horror forged by my own hands. It was fitting, was it not, that the weapon claimed its maker? I think, yes, it was. It was.' He paused, and then brought both hands up to his face. For a moment it seemed he would begin clawing his beard from the skin beneath it. Instead, the shackled hands fell away, down, dragged by the weight of the chains. 'I too am sorry,' said Pearl. 'To see the end of this.' 'What?' 'So many enemies, all here and not one by choice. Enemies, and yet working together for so long. It was a wonderous thing, was it not, Draconus? When necessity forced each hand to clasp, to work as one. A wonderous thing.' The warrior stared at the demon. He seemed unable to speak.”

stoicism

6,873

“For the military community, philosophy isn't something casually debated. But something that should be fully embodied in everyday thought and action, with the abandonment of all principles not shown practical in the most extreme of environments.”

stoicism

6,979

“Milo's Way- A Haiku Strength sought in small steps, Like Milo's calf on shoulders, Grow with steady will.”

stoicism

7,323

“Change is not always a bad thing: it sometimes takes the form of progress. And is not always a good thing: it sometimes takes the form of regress.”

stoicism

7,597

“You should, I need hardly say, live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.”

stoicism

7,237

“A truth is not any less truthful, when it is said by someone who did not discover, or does not understand, it.”

stoicism

7,223

“To live is to owe life to die.”

stoicism

7,037

“I encouraged them to bear up against all evils, and if we must perish, to die in our own cause, and not weakly distrust the providence of the Almighty, by giving ourselves up to despair. I reasoned with them, and told them that we would not die sooner by keeping up our hopes; that the dreadful sacrifices and privations we endured were to preserve us from death, and were not to be put in competition with the price which we set upon our lives, and their value to our families: it was, besides, unmanly to repine at what neither admitted of alleviation nor cure; and withal, that it was our solemn duty to recognise in our calamities an overruling divinity, by whose mercy we might be suddenly snatched from peril, and to rely upon him alone, ‘Who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb?”

stoicism

7,155

“We each unwittingly contribute, each and every day, to the preventions and to the causes of millions of accidents.”

stoicism

7,544

“The present isn’t more capable of causing mental pain than the past or the future.”

stoicism

7,617

“...we can do some historical research to see how our ancestors lived. We will quickly discover that we are living in what to them would have been a dream world that we tend to take for granted things that our ancestors had to live without...”

stoicism

7,156

“We must say nothing, when we have nothing to say.”

stoicism

7,646

“Sometimes in life we must fight not only without fear, but also without hope.”

stoicism

7,028

“Precision of thought comes from a tranquil mindset. A presenter can have a competitive edge if they are unmoved by the jabs and provocations that are directed at them”

stoicism

7,052

“We are not the first Who with best meaning have incurred the worst. For thee, oppressèd king, I am cast down. Myself could else outfrown false Fortune’s frown.”

stoicism

7,395

“We make life even more painful by having expectations and preferences.”

stoicism