You have power over your mind – vital Stoic quotes for the modern world

Actor Russell Brand and bestselling author Matt Haig – who are often described as mental health ambassadors – have both mentioned it: Stoicism. Other celebrities have also discovered its wisdom, including actor Tom Hiddleston and musician LL Cool J.

This ancient method for living life on life’s terms with strength, empathy and compassion is seeing a major cultural resurgence now. Stoicism is a school of philosophy started in Greece in the 3rd Century BC by a man called Zeno.

Stoicism puts particular emphasis on living in a decent moral way. Also that people learn to understand how they see and react to problems is the majority of the problem, more so than the actual perceived problem.

CBT and Stoicism

Popular talking therapy CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) is strongly connected to Stoicism. In the 1950s, psychologist Albert Ellis started the first type of CBT.

He saw that people often had beliefs about situations that were not based on fact. Ellis realized that people’s perspectives of the situations was what actually caused the biggest problem for them. That led to unhappiness, as well as mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

There are ways to learn how to challenge such perspectives – to see them in a completely different manner. This means that difficulties and unhappiness can be avoided.

Although an ancient philosophy, stoicism is as relevant today as it was in the 3rd Century BC. This is because our human condition with its feelings and emotions is always the same.

Stoic wisdom for our modern world

Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius are the three most quoted of the Stoics. Their immense words of wisdom are a wonderful way of living for today.

Here’s a selection of some of their best quotes:

Epictetus

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” 

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” 

“You become what you give your attention to.” 

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.” 

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”

“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.”

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”

“No person is free who is not master of himself.” 

“Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”

Seneca

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” 

“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.” 

“To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.”

“He who is brave is free.”

“The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

“Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms – you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.”

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”

“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

Marcus Aurelius

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love…” 

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” 

“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticise?”

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.” 

“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.” 

“Don’t go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one.”

“Remember that very little is needed to make a happy life.”

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” 

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”