10 Stoic Quotes on Decision-Making

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

    — Epictetus, Discourses 3.23

  • This is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another.

    — Epictetus, Enchiridion 17

  • Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

    — Epictetus, Enchiridion 33

  • Make it your goal never to fail in your desires or experience things you would rather avoid; try never to err in impulse and repulsion; aim to be perfect also in the practice of attention and withholding judgment.

    — Epictetus, Discourses 1.4.11

  • Restrict yourself to choice and refusal; and exercise them carefully, with discipline and detachment.

    — Epictetus, Enchiridion 2

  • If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.

    — Epictetus, Fragments 39

  • If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.

    — Seneca, Moral Letters 71.3

  • When you find your direction, check to make sure that it is the right one.

    — Epictetus, Discourses 3.23

  • Only consider at what price you sell your own will: if for no other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum.

    — Epictetus, Discourses 1.2.33

  • A man who makes a decision without listening to both sides is unjust, even if his ruling is a fair one.

    — Seneca, Medea 199