Stoic Quotes
More Stoic Quotes
Every Stoic was a Stoic; but in Christendom where is the Christian?
— 1841Essays: First Series,'Self-Reliance'.
"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire, but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the hand, the armful bigger than the arm, and to hope to stride further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and monstrous…. He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of special grace; he may lift himself … by means wholly celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous metamorphosis.
Michel de Montaigne— Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chapter XII
"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire, but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the hand, the armful bigger than the arm, and to hope to stride further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and monstrous…. He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of special grace; he may lift himself … by means wholly celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous metamorphosis.
Michel de Montaigne— Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, Chapter XII
Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics throughout their history ; his attitude at the time of his trial, his refusal to escape, his calmness in the face of death , and his contention that the perpetrator of injustice injures himself more than his victim, all fitted in perfectly with Stoic teaching.
— Bertrand Russell, in A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Book One, Part III, Chapter XXVIII, Stoicism, p. 253
One cannot accept the attitude of some among the Stoics, who said, "What does it matter to me if my family suffer? I can still be virtuous." The Christian principle, "Love your enemies," is good, but the Stoic principle, "Be indifferent to your friends," is bad.
— Bertrand Russell, in A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Book Three, Part I, Chapter X, Spinoza, p. 579
Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics throughout their history ; his attitude at the time of his trial, his refusal to escape, his calmness in the face of death , and his contention that the perpetrator of injustice injures himself more than his victim, all fitted in perfectly with Stoic teaching. So did his indifference to heat and cold, his plainness in matters of food and dress, and his complete independence of all bodily comforts.
bertrand russell— Bertrand Russell, Ibid., Part III, Chapter XXVIII, Stoicism, p. 253
A Stoic of the woods—a man without a tear.
thomas campbell— Part I, stanza 23 (1809).
The Stoic husband was the glorious thing.The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,And lov'd his country.
Alexander Pope— Epilogue to Rowe's Jane Shore (1714).
It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of Stoic resignation to necessity , or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints .
william james— Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
Heroic, Stoic Cato, the sententious, Who lent his lady to his friend Hortensius.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto VI, Stanza 7.
A Stoic of the woods, a man without a tear.
thomas campbell— Thomas Campbell, Gertrude of Wyoming, Part I, Stanza 23.
It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of Stoic resignation to necessity , or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.
— William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902), Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
And Stoic Franklin's energetic shade Robed in the lightnings which his hand allay'd.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Age of Bronze, VIII.
It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of Stoic resignation to necessity , or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints .
— William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
