10 Stoic Quotes on The Present Moment

  • “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”

    — Epictetus
  • “Confine yourself to the present.”

    — Marcus Aurelius
  • “The present moment is the only thing of which anyone can be deprived, at least if this is the only thing he has and he cannot lose what he has not got.”

    — Marcus Aurelius
  • “Remember how long you have been putting off these things, and how often you have received an opportunity from the gods, and yet do not use it.”

    — Marcus Aurelius
  • “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”

    — Marcus Aurelius
  • “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

    — Seneca
  • “True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.”

    — Seneca
  • “The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what is in Fortune's control and abandoning what lies in yours.”

    — Seneca
  • “But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

    — Seneca
  • “The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”

    — Seneca