It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
On the Shortness of Life, §1 (49 CE)
Theme
Stoic quotes
Rome's working philosophers on what is actually in your control, and what only feels like it is.
12 verified quotes
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Letters from a Stoic, Letter XIII, 'On Groundless Fears' (65 CE)
Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
Letters from a Stoic, Letter CI (65 CE)
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Discourses, Book III, §23 (108 CE)
Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
Discourses, Book I, §18 (108 CE)
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
Meditations, Book X, §16 (180 CE)
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
Meditations, Book V, §20 (180 CE)
Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together.
Meditations, Book VI, §39 (180 CE)
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
Meditations, Book V, §16 (180 CE)
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
Meditations, Book VII, §47 (180 CE)
If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.
Meditations, Book XII, §17 (180 CE)
How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbour says.
Meditations, Book IV, §18 (180 CE)