8 Stoic Quotes on Self-Control

  • Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

    — Seneca, Moral Letters 90.34

  • If one were to measure what is agreeable by the standard of pleasure, nothing would be pleasanter than self-control; and if one were to measure what is to be avoided by pain, nothing would be more painful than lack of self-control.

    — Musonius Rufus, Fragments 24

  • Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

    — Epictetus, Discourses 4.1.175

  • People who know no self-restraint lead stormy and disordered lives, passing their time in a state of fear commensurate with the injuries they do to others, never able to relax.

    — Seneca, Moral Letters 105.7

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

    — Epictetus, Enchiridion 2

  • All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

    — Epictetus, Attic Nights (by Aulus Gellius) 17.19

  • Again, when fortune smiles and the stream of life flows according to our wishes, let us diligently avoid all arrogance, haughtiness, and pride. For it is as much a sign of weakness to give way to one's feelings in success as it is in adversity. But it is a fine thing to keep an unruffled temper, an unchanging mien, and the same cast of countenance in every condition of life; this, history tells us, was characteristic of Socrates and no less of Gaius Laelius.

    — Cicero, On Duties 1.90

  • The beginning and foundation of temperance lay in self- control in eating and drinking.

    — Musonius Rufus, Discources 18