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