On weight, not length
"Let us see to it, my dear Lucilius, that our lives, like jewels of great price, be noteworthy not because of their width but because of their weight. Let us measure them by their performance, not by their duration." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 93
On what praise adds
"Is such a thing as an emerald made worse than it was, if it is not praised?" — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations IV.20
On the obstacle
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.20
On what a victory costs
"In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it." — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 29
On planting for another age
"There is none of us who is not planting an olive-yard for his successor." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 86
On what we control
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. — Epictetus, Enchiridion VIII
On guarding treasure
"Things not in our power include the body, property, reputation, office, and, in a word, everything which is not our own doing." — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1
On the material at hand
"For as the carpenter's material is wood, and that of the statuary is copper, so the matter of the art of living is each man's life." — Epictetus, Discourses, Book I, Chapter 15
On the price of a name
"If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity." — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 23
On the body's terms
"Sickness is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses." — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 9
On the temporary exhibit
"All things are passing away, and we ourselves are being carried past in the very stream." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI.15
On work that outlasts the toil
"If one accomplishes some good though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains." — Musonius Rufus, That One Should Disdain Hardships
On what is held in trust
"Have I done something for the common good? Then I too have benefited." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations XI.4
On belonging to nature
"Everything harmonizes with me which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early nor too late, which is in due time for thee." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV.23
On what time marks
"We should remember that even Nature's inadvertence has its own charm, its own attractiveness." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.2
On the patience of good work
"No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen." — Epictetus, Discourses I.15
On rebuilding
"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." — Seneca, On Providence
On death
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.11
On foreseeing trouble
"He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 91
On the honor of age
"Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12
On your own voice
"Let there be a difference between yourself and your book!" — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 33
On beginning the repair
"How long, then, will you delay to demand of yourself the noblest improvements, and in no instance to transgress the judgments of reason?" — Epictetus, Enchiridion 51
On ending well
"So the olive falls when it is grown ripe, blessing the ground from whence it sprung, and thankful to the tree that bore it." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations IV.48
On the harder opponent
"Difficulties are things that show what men are. For the future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist." — Epictetus, Discourses I.24
On reading well
"You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2
On what troubles us
"Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things." — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 5
On the whole of a life
"As it is with a play, so it is with life: what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is." — Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, Letter 77
On tending what remains
"That which has grown old is the very thing which time changes: nothing perishes wholly." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VIII.6
On single-mindedness
"To be everywhere is to be nowhere." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2
On taking your share
"Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take a moderate share. Does it pass by you? Do not stop it. Is it not yet come? Do not stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you." — Epictetus, Enchiridion 15
On what replaces us
"Some things are hurrying into existence, and others are hurrying out of it; and of that which is coming into existence part is already extinguished." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book VI
On the verdict of others
"I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book XII
On transformation
"Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
On staying yourself
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
On inheriting a role
"We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it." — Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
On new work
"As long as you live, keep learning how to live." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letter 76
On adversity
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. — Epictetus, as recorded in the Discourses
On finishing
"Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our life." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, XII
On the spoken word
"If you didn't learn these things in order to demonstrate them in practice, what did you learn them for?" — Epictetus, Discourses
On looking back
"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV.3
On what we borrow
"Never say of anything, 'I have lost it'; but, 'I have returned it.' Is your child dead? It is returned." — Epictetus, Enchiridion
On what outlasts us
"Whatever you do, do it not for the sake of a reward, but for the thing itself." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book VII
On beginning again
Confine yourself to the present. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VIII.7
On our own work
"In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present—I am rising to the work of a human being." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5
On winning and losing
"It is difficult to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not." — Epictetus, Discourses, Book II
On what we overlook
"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul, above all when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately at perfect ease." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV
On what remains
"Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are and to make new things like them." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV
On the unknown
"Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius (Letter CXX)
On perspective
"Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IV
On death
You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.11
On enough
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. — Attributed to Epictetus
On adversity
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. — Epictetus, as recorded in the Discourses
On time
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. — Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
On other people
When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II.1
On the examined day
I will keep constant watch over myself and, most usefully, will put each day up for review. — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius I
On what we control
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. — Epictetus, Enchiridion VIII
On beginning again
Confine yourself to the present. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations VIII.7
Daily Meditations is a companion to Marcus, a Stoic practice app for iOS: daily journaling, guided meditation, and a structured evening reckoning.
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