Stoicism Life Hacks ∙ What is Stoicism? How can I be Stoic?

Start hereMarcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor who, most scholars now think, wrote for himself. Epictetus spent part of his life enslaved. So what did one philosophy ask of both men?

01A simple example

Say a colleague criticises your work in a meeting, and it stings for the rest of the day.

Epictetus puts it in one line of his Handbook, in Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s translation: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.” Our reading: the remark happened, but Epictetus would have you look at the view you took of it before the remark itself.

02What is Stoicism?

Stoicism is an ancient Greek school of philosophy that the Romans later took up. Its central claim is about what makes a life good.

For the Stoics, virtue is both necessary and enough for happiness. Things like health, wealth and reputation are neither good nor bad in themselves. Only virtue is good.

That is why most Stoic advice is about attention and judgement. It asks which things are up to you, and how much of what upsets you comes from your view of an event.

03Where it came from

The school was founded around 300 BC by Zeno of Citium, who had studied with the Cynic Crates. Its name comes from the Stoa Poikilê, a porch in the agora at Athens decorated with mural paintings, where the first Stoics met and lectured.

Almost nothing of the early Stoics survives whole. The three voices most people read today are Roman-era, and very different from one another:

• Epictetus, a teacher who spent part of his life as the slave of an official at Nero’s court. His teaching survives through his student Arrian, in the Greek Discourses and a short digest of them, the Enchiridion or Handbook.
• Seneca, Nero’s tutor and later one of his advisers, who wrote letters, essays and tragedies.
• Marcus Aurelius, the second-century emperor, whose Meditations were, as most scholars now read them, written for his own moral improvement.

04The ideas behind most Stoic advice

Most modern Stoic advice rewords a handful of ideas.

• Some things are up to us, and some are not. The Enchiridion opens with it: “There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power.” Within our power, it goes on, are opinion, aim, desire and aversion; beyond it are body, property, reputation and office.
• The virtues. In Diogenes Laertius’s account of the Stoics, the virtues are prudence, justice, courage, moderation and the rest. The Stoics held that they are the only true goods.
• Picturing loss. Epictetus suggests reminding yourself that the child or wife you embrace is mortal, so that if either of them dies, you can bear it. Seneca makes the same point in Letter 98, about regarding children, wife or property with the idea that we will not necessarily have them always.
• The judgement behind the feeling. If something outside you pains you, Marcus writes in 8.47, it is not the thing that disturbs you but your own judgement about it. And it is in your power to wipe that judgement out.
• Remembering death. Marcus, 4.17: “Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over thee. While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”

05Lines and labels often credited to the Stoics

Several popular Stoic lines are later wordings or later labels. The ideas behind them are often close to the texts.

• “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” This comes from Jeremy Collier’s free translation of 1701, at Meditations 3.9. George Long’s translation of the same passage begins with a different thought, about revering the faculty that produces opinion. Long’s nearest line is 5.16, where the soul “is dyed by the thoughts”.
• “You have power over your mind, not outside events.” It is often shared as a line from Marcus. It is not in George Long’s translation of the Meditations, and we have found no ancient source for it. The nearest real passage is 8.47, quoted in the ideas above.
• Amor fati, love of fate, is a phrase from Nietzsche. In The Gay Science (1882), §276, he wrote: “Amor fati: let that henceforth be my love!” The Latin words do not appear in Seneca’s surviving works, and Epictetus taught in Greek. The attitude is close to Epictetus, though, who advises wishing events to happen as they do happen (Enchiridion 8). Marcus says something similar in 7.57: love only what happens to you and is spun with the thread of your destiny.
• “The inner citadel” is the title of Pierre Hadot’s book on the Meditations. The image is Marcus’s own: “the mind which is free from passions is a citadel” (Meditations 8.48).

06A Stoic day, in practice

The texts describe a few small habits. None of them needs special equipment, and people take what is useful and leave the rest.

1. In the morning, expect friction. Marcus tells himself to begin the morning by expecting difficult people, from the busybody to the envious (2.1). He goes on to say that none of them can injure him.
2. Sort the day’s worries into what is within your power and what is not, as the first line of the Enchiridion does.
3. Picture losing something you value. Epictetus’s example is a favourite cup: remember it is only a cup you are fond of, and if it breaks you can bear it.
4. When something stings, look for the judgement underneath it (Meditations 8.47), and ask whether it holds.
5. Choose company with care. Seneca advises keeping company with people who will make you better (Letter 7).
6. Review the day at night. In On Anger 3.36, Seneca describes the custom of the philosopher Sextius, who asked himself each evening: “What bad habit of yours have you cured to-day? What vice have you checked? In what respect are you better?” Seneca says he does the same, once the lamp is out and his wife has fallen silent.

Seneca also names what picturing loss guards against (Letter 98). It is fearing the future and being wretched in advance, anxious that the things you enjoy might not last.

07Why it keeps coming back

Stoicism has a real place in the history of modern talking therapy.

• Albert Ellis, who founded rational emotive behaviour therapy, named Epictetus as a forerunner. He later said he had brought Epictetus out of near-obscurity in the 1950s.
• Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy, opened his first book on it by tracing its philosophical roots back thousands of years, certainly as far as the Stoics.

That lineage is also a limit. Stoicism is a philosophy, not a treatment. It is not a substitute for care if you are struggling with your mental health.

08Where to start reading

All three are free online in older translations:

• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (Project Gutenberg).
• Epictetus, Enchiridion, tr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Project Gutenberg). It is short, and it is an abridgment: the Stanford Encyclopedia calls it “a much attenuated account” of the Discourses, which are the fuller record.
• Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, tr. Richard M. Gummere (Wikisource), and On Anger, tr. Aubrey Stewart (Wikisource).

Our verified Stoic quote of the day draws only on these translations, with a book and section number for every line.

09Quick answers

10Use this

11Quick quiz

How we checked this · Last checked October 2026

• Every quotation was matched against the translation named beside it: Higginson for Epictetus, Long (and Collier, for one line) for Marcus, Gummere and Stewart for Seneca, and Common for Nietzsche.
• The Diogenes Laertius passage on the virtues is given as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy quotes it, in A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley's translation.
• For "You have power over your mind", we searched George Long's full Meditations for its key phrases in October and found no match. We did not search every translation.
• For amor fati, we searched Seneca's Latin works as published on The Latin Library and found no match.
• Ellis's and Beck's words are taken as a review in Neurological Sciences quotes them; we did not read their own books.

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12Sources