10 Stoic Quotes on Patience

  • "No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen." — Epictetus, Discourses 1.15

  • "Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate." — Epictetus, Enchiridion 10

  • "When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1

  • "Only time can heal what reason cannot." — Seneca, Agamemnon 130

  • "He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary." — Seneca, Moral Letters 98.8

  • "When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity, lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.11

  • "Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant." — Seneca, Moral Letters 107.11

  • "When you are offended at any man’s fault, immediately turn to yourself and reflect in what manner you yourself have erred." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.30

  • "The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable." — Seneca, Moral Letters 98.5

  • "While we wait for life, life passes." — Seneca, Moral Letters 1.2