Stoic quotes on time and living in the present

Two things to keep in mind. All things from eternity repeat in like forms — a hundred years sees nothing new. And the longest-lived and the soonest to die both lose just the same.

We plot long sea-journeys, postponed homecomings, campaigns of war, the slow climb of offices — while death stands quietly beside us. Because we picture it falling only on a neighbour, daily losses press around us almost unseen.

I do the only thing I can: not drown in fear, nor scream, nor blame God. What has been produced must perish. I am a man, a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day.

Everything of the body is a stream. Everything of the soul, a dream and vapor. Life is a war and a stranger's stay. After fame, oblivion. What can guide a person? One thing only: philosophy.

There is nothing more wretched than worry over what the future holds. Our troubled minds flutter with unaccountable fear. How shall we avoid this? If there is no reaching forward in our life, if it is withdrawn into itself.

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.

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.

Every habit is maintained by its matching action. Walking by walking, running by running. Want to read well, then read. Stop for thirty days and see what happens.

You must now see what whole you belong to, and that a limit of time is fixed for you. If you do not use it to clear the clouds from your mind, it will go, and it will never return.

What unrest can Chance bring with its shifting moods, if you stand firm against what is unsure? So begin to live at once, dear Lucilius — and reckon each new day as a separate life.

Exercise yourself daily. Each morning, examine every person and thing. Apply the rule. Is this within the will or outside it? Outside it. Take it away.

If you work at what is before you, following reason seriously, vigorously, and calmly — keeping your inner self pure as if returning it now — expecting nothing, fearing nothing, speaking every word with conviction: you will live well.

Cast off this hunger for life. The hour of your suffering matters little — suffer you must, at some season. What counts is not the length of your living, but its nobility.

As Zeus dwells with himself and is tranquil, thinking thoughts suitable to himself, so we ought to talk with ourselves, not feel the want of others, and observe how things affect us now.

Whatever harmonizes with you is in harmony with me. Nothing for me is too early or too late. Everything your seasons bring is fruit to me. From you all things come, and to you all things return.

Every day, every hour, exposes how slight we are — proof anew that frailty has slipped our minds. As we plot for ages to come, the moments force a glance behind, where Death waits.

When you kiss your child, brother, or friend, do not give full rein to the impression; let pleasure not run unchecked. Check it, curb it — as those who stand behind men at their triumphs remind them they are mortal.

All these things you see are changing right now and will soon no longer be. Bear in mind how many of these changes you have already witnessed. All of existence is transformation. Life is opinion.

'Graft now your pears, Meliboeus; set your vines in their rows.' Yet what folly to order one's life as though one held the title to tomorrow. What madness to lay distant plans against a future no one owns.

Remind yourself that what you love is mortal, and nothing of your own. It has been given for the present, not forever, but like a fig at the appointed season.

Think how many physicians are dead after frowning over the sick, how many philosophers after endless talk of death, how many heroes after killing thousands, how many tyrants after wielding power as if immortal.