What are Stoic principles you may ask? A tool in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom within ourselves.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb best described Stoicism “A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.”
They are principles when acted upon, greatly improve one's life and allows freedom from within.
Seneca once said, “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” Stoicism is a guide to better living.
Below are some shared teachings from the Stoic Masters themselves.
On life and living
“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” – Marcus Aurelius
“We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” – Marcus Aurelius,
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”― Seneca
"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man without trials."―Seneca
On Time & Death
"You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”
― Seneca
"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness."
― Marcus Aurelius
"Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess."
― Epictetus
“Not to live as if you had endless years ahead of you. Death overshadows you. While you’re alive and able — be good.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.”
― Epictetus
On Change
"Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too."
― Marcus Aurelius
"First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do."
― Epictetus
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." - Viktor E. Frankl
“Today I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions — not outside.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." - Epictetus
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
If these principles worked for past warriors of Stoicism, why can’t it work for us?