Start here3
Three pieces that carry most of the weight. If you read nothing else, read these.
How to keep a Stoic journal
The most famous book in Stoicism is a private notebook. What made it a Stoic one, and how to keep your own.
The dichotomy of control
The most quoted idea in Stoicism, and the most consistently flattened in the retelling.
The four Stoic virtues
Wisdom, courage, justice, temperance. Three of the four are about acting, and one is entirely about other people.
Sources and attribution8
A great deal of what circulates as Stoic wisdom is not. This is the part of the site that checks.
The Stoic quotes that are not Stoic
Twenty-six quotations credited to Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and others that belong to a screenwriter, a songwriter, Voltaire and Kant. Found by auditing our own library.
Check a Stoic quote
Paste a line attributed to Marcus Aurelius, Seneca or Epictetus and find out whether it is theirs. Free, runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere.
Stoic quotes, with sources
Six themed collections — death, perception, anxiety, discipline, character, other people — every passage cited to a book and a chapter.
Did Marcus Aurelius say "what we do in life echoes in eternity"?
No. It is from Gladiator, and Marcus argued the opposite: that being remembered is worthless and oblivion comes fast.
Did Aristotle say "we are what we repeatedly do"?
No. The sentence is Will Durant’s, from 1926. Unusually for a misquote it is a good summary of Aristotle, which is why it has been impossible to dislodge.
Did Epictetus say "it’s not what happens to you, but how you react"?
The idea is his, the sentence is not. A paraphrase of Enchiridion 5 that moved the work from judgment to reaction, and threw away the best part of the passage.
Who said "be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle"?
A Scottish minister in 1897, and he wrote "be pitiful". A century of anonymous editing sanded off every marker of its date, which is how it ended up credited to Seneca.
Did Socrates say "the secret of change is to focus all your energy"?
A character called Socrates did, in a 1980 novel. The real one wrote nothing at all, which is worth remembering every time a tidy aphorism arrives with his name on it.
The exercises6
What the Stoics actually did, daily, and how to run the same drills without abandoning them by February.
The Stoic morning routine
What Marcus actually did at dawn, and why the morning has a different job than the evening.
The Stoic evening examination
Seneca put himself on trial every night, as a judge who does not frighten the defendant. The oldest documented practice in the tradition.
Premeditatio malorum
Rehearsing what could go wrong, and why it is the opposite of worrying about it.
The view from above
Seeing your circumstances at their actual size. The exercise only works if you come back down.
Memento mori: remember you will die
Not about death, about time. Seneca’s claim is that life is long enough, and we waste most of it.
Amor fati: loving what happens
The phrase is Nietzsche’s, the idea is older. Willing what occurred, and how it differs from the toxic positivity it gets mistaken for.
What people get wrong2
The two misreadings that do the most damage, both of them widespread.
When it is hard2
The Stoics wrote at length about anger and about grief, and were more honest about both than their reputation suggests.
Neighbouring traditions2
Where Stoicism genuinely overlaps with something else, and where the comparison is usually made badly.
Which book, which translation4
Four of the five surviving sources are worth your time. Knowing which edition to buy matters more than people expect.
How to actually read the Meditations
It is a notebook, not a book. Skip Book One first time, and read the repetition as the point.
Where to start with Seneca
124 letters and reading them in order is a mistake. Which eight to read first, and how to handle the fact he did not live what he wrote.
Which translation of Meditations should you read?
Hays, Hard, Hammond and Waterfield compared, and why the free edition sounds like the King James Bible.
Epictetus: Discourses, Enchiridion, or The Art of Living?
Three different kinds of book under one name, and one of them is not a translation. Which to read, and which never to quote.
The Stoics and their books3
The voices behind the practice, and the translations worth actually owning.
The Stoics
Twelve figures in the order they lived, from a shipwrecked merchant to an emperor. What each taught and where to start.
The Library
Twenty-four books: primary sources in the best translations, modern interpreters, and adjacent thinkers.
Daily Meditations
One short Stoic reflection each morning, tied to something happening in the world. Free.
Marcus turns all of this into a daily practice for iOS: a morning preparation, a daily reading, and a structured evening examination.
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