10 Stoic Quotes on Grief & Loss

  • “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • “Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • “What we cannot bear removes us from life; what remains can be borne.” — Marcus Aurelius

  • “The final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process. We reach death at that moment, but we have been a long time on the way.” — Seneca

  • “It is uncertain where Death will await you; there expect it everywhere.” — Seneca

  • “Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.” — Seneca

  • “I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?” — Epictetus

  • “It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.” — Epictetus

  • “He who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has, is a wise man.” — Epictetus

  • “Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.” — Epictetus