The Stoic Magazine Library

Humans are fallible. In fact, the Stoics thought that we are so fallible that none of us ever gets to be completely virtuous. They said only a sage can be virtuous and, for all practical purposes, no one ever gets to be a sage.

“Each occasion of failing offers an opportunity to exercise those dimensions of the virtue of courage that the Stoics called perseverance and industriousness.”

“All virtues can be thought of as a habit, and the virtues of courage and strength are no exception. Life provides you opportunities every day to practice strength and courage.”

“How many of us can say with certainty that all our present thoughts, actions and attitudes are virtuous?”

“We shouldn’t overly focus on heavy duty metaphysics. Finding out what the world is really like is not really our area of expertise anymore. Physics, chemistry, and evolutionary biology take care of that. The one job we have is to remain Stoics whatever the world is like.”

“Favour “living the questions” over marshaling arguments to advance or defend cherished or conclusive points of view.”

“We should think very carefully about the appropriateness of our lifestyle choices to make sure they are consistent with our values”

“The Cynics firmly established the responsibility of each individual to live a moral life, and the importance of self-discipline and indifference to pleasure or pain in the pursuit of virtue. They also established a tradition of questioning the validity of every assumption until proof can be found.”

“We can choose whether to go with the world the way it is, or be dragged along kicking and screaming.”

Stoic quotes for every day of the month