Quotes from Letters from a Stoic

Quotations follow the Robin Campbell translation (Penguin Classics, 2004) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it.

2. 3

   There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

3. 4

   It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

4. 5

   Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

5. 6

   As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

6. 7

   When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

7. 8

   Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you?

8. 9

   Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

9. 10

   You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.

10. 11

    Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.

11. 12

    While we are postponing, life speeds by.

12. 13

    Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.

13. 14

    What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?

14. 15

    "They are slaves," people declare. Nay, rather they are men.

15. 16

    He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it.

16. 17

    Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.

17. 18

    Our lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty; the difficulty comes from our lack of confidence.

18. 19

    Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul.

19. 20

    Philosophy is no trick to catch the public; it is not devised for show. It is a matter, not of words, but of facts.

20. 21

    Thus we learn our lessons, not for life, but for the lecture-room.

21. 22

    Drunkenness is nothing but a condition of insanity purposely assumed.