Stoic quotes on desire, wealth, and having enough

Whatever I am — a little flesh, breath, and a ruling mind. Throw away your books. Stop distracting yourself. As if dying now, despise the flesh: blood and bones, a weaving of nerves and veins.

Treat anything that brings you pleasure as a plant in flower. Take its leaves while they last — each kind has its own falling-time, and all fall in due season.

The beginning of philosophy is consciousness of your own weakness about necessary things. We have no natural notion of geometry or music. We learn them by art, and those who do not know them do not claim to.

If you find anything better than justice, truth, temperance, and fortitude — anything better than your mind's satisfaction in what reason enables — turn to it with all your soul.

Cast off gold and silver and whatever else weighs down our richly-furnished homes. Freedom is not bought for nothing; if you set a high value on freedom, then everything else must be set low.

Keep what is your own. Do not claim what belongs to others. Use what is given. When something is taken away, give it up readily and be thankful for the time you had it.

Never value anything as profitable which would compel you to break your promise, lose your self-respect, hate, suspect, curse, or play the hypocrite. The one who prefers his own intelligence and inner deity needs neither solitude nor crowds.

Knowledge is gathered not by random grabs but by working the parts to reach the whole. Fit the burden to your strength; take on no more than you can carry. Drink not what you want, but what you can hold.

A man enters a good inn and, pleased with it, decides to stay. You have forgotten your purpose. You were not traveling to this inn. You were passing through.

Everything that is in any way beautiful is beautiful in itself and terminates in itself. Praise is no part of it. A thing is made neither worse nor better by being praised.

First learn to see plainly, for yourself, what you truly need and what is surplus. The needful finds you wherever you go; the surplus must always be sought out, and at great cost of effort.

There is no place you can retreat to with more quiet or more freedom from trouble than your own soul — especially when you carry within you thoughts that bring immediate tranquility.

Luxury has only turned his stomach; he will soon make peace with it again. He claims to be sick of his old life — and who is not? We crave our vices and despise them at the same hour.

I wish to conquer at the Olympics. So do I. But consider what precedes and what follows. Then if it is for your good, undertake it. Otherwise you will quit in shame.

If the gods have power, why not pray for them to give you the faculty of not fearing what you fear, or not desiring what you desire, rather than praying that things should happen or not happen?

Nothing aids moderation more than constantly recalling that life is short and uncertain here. Whatever you are doing, keep the thought of death before you.

A good man does nothing for appearance but for doing right. What advantage is it to him? The same advantage as writing a name correctly: the advantage is to have written it.

Be not discouraged if you fail to act by right principles. When you have failed, return again. Be content if the greater part of what you do accords with your nature, and love this to which you return.

Nature asks only that thirst be relieved — she cares nothing whether you use a golden goblet, a crystal one, a clay cup, or a hollow palm. Always look to the end, and you will let go what is superfluous.

Is there no reward then? Do you seek for a good man a reward greater than doing what is good and just? At Olympia the crown seems enough. Does it seem so small a thing to be good?

When we have meat before us, receive the impression: this is a dead fish, this a dead pig. That purple robe is sheep's wool dyed with shell-blood. Such impressions penetrate to the things themselves.