Your Mind Is A Fighter | Powerful Stoic Quotes That Will Change Your Life

Marcus Aurelius hated the gladiatorial games. He despised the violence and the pointlessness of it. But it was part of his job to attend them, so he did his best to distract himself with a book–often to the bemusement of the crowd. When he was emperor, he tried to give the gladiators wooden swords so they wouldn’t hurt each other. Seneca found the violence disturbing too, as he was wary of anything the mob loved.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares his thoughts on the struggles to find motivation, woven throughout the most famous Stoic texts are wisely chosen words designed to motivate one’s self. They knew then, as we know now, that the right words, at the right time, can inspire action. So today, as you’re looking for a little extra motivation to get after the task at hand, consider these quotes from nearly 2,000 years ago:✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these Stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy.

• 0:25Ryan Holiday?

  Your mind is a fighter. Marcus Aurelius hated the gladiatorial games. He despised the violence and the pointlessness of it, but it was also his job to attend them. So he did his best to distract himself with a book, often to the bemusement of the crowd. When he was emperor, he tried to give the gladiators wooden swords so they wouldn't hurt each other. Seneca found the violence disturbing, too, and he was wary of anything the mob loved. Yet both Seneca and Marcus Aurelius understood the power of the metaphor, which is why allusions to the games are threaded through their works. They knew that life was a battle. They felt that the philosopher belonged in the arena. They knew that surviving, winning depended on training and courage and tenacity. They didn't live long enough

• 1:09Ryan Holiday?

  to read Boswell. They would have appreciated his description of the mental facilities of his muse and hero, Samuel Johnson, what Marcus Aurelius himself called "the command center," through the imagery of what Marcus and Seneca saw firsthand. "His mind resembled a vast amphitheater, the Colosseum of Rome," Boswell said. "In the center stood his judgment, which, like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that he, that, like the wild beasts of the arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drove them back into their dens, but not killing him. They were still assailing him." We don't have to revel in combat sports to understand that we are in our own desperate

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  fight. We are fighting against false impressions. We are fighting against destructive emotions like greed and fear and envy and prejudice. We are fighting against our lower self in order to reach that higher plane, the one worthy of being cheered and celebrated. And it's a fight that happens day in and day out and never really ends. We'll never win, but we can be great in our brief moment in the arena. We can be mighty as we fight back the beasts that are let out upon us.

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Concentrate every minute on doing what's in front of you.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  You don't have to turn this into something. It doesn't have to upset you.

• 2:43Speaker 01

  The present is all we have to live in, or to lose.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Stop whatever you're doing for a moment and ask yourself, "Am I afraid of death because I won't be able to do this anymore?"

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Let each thing you would do, say, or intend be like that of a dying person.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  Today, I escaped anxiety. Or no, I discarded it because it was within me, in my own perceptions, not outside.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  You have to assemble your life yourself, action by action.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  You can also commit injustice by doing nothing.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Receive without pride, let go without attachment.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Have I done something for the common good? Then I share in the benefits.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  It never ceases to amaze me. We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.

• 4:50Speaker 01

  It's unfortunate that this has happened. No, it's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed.

• 5:04Speaker 01

  If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.

• 5:14Speaker 01

  You always own the option of having no opinion.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary?

• 5:29Speaker 01

  If something is humanly possible, it's attainable by you too.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Someone despises me, that's their problem.

• 5:56Speaker 01

  Everything is born from change.

• 6:02Speaker 01

  You have power over your mind, not outside events.

• 6:10Speaker 01

  When jarred, unavoidably by circumstance, revert at once to yourself and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help.

• 6:23Speaker 01

  You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do, say, and think.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Our life is what our thoughts make it.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live it in a consistent way.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Get back up when you fail. Celebrate behaving like a human.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  Limit yourself to the present.

• 7:03Speaker 01

  The tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say, or think, or do. Only what you do.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Don't you see how much you have to offer? And yet, you still settle for less.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Mastery of reading and writing requires a master.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  The struggle is great. The task divine. To gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Do not let others hold you back.

• 7:50Speaker 01

  A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  To love only what happens, no greater harmony.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  If it's humanly possible, you can do it too.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Choose not to be harmed, and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed, and you haven't been.

• 8:26Speaker 01

  Don't procrastinate. Don't confuse. Don't wander. Don't be passive or aggressive. Don't be all about business.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  Love the hand that fate deals you, and play it as your own.

• 8:48Speaker 01

  Practice even what seems impossible.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  There is never any need to get worked up about things you can't control.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  People exist for one another.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  Seneca

• 9:21Speaker 01

  We suffer more in imagination than in reality.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  It's better to conquer grief than to deceive it.

• 9:58Speaker 01

  Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.

• 10:10Speaker 01

  No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself.

• 10:21Speaker 01

  Everything hangs on one's thinking. A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.

• 10:32Speaker 01

  It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.

• 10:40Speaker 01

  All cruelty springs from weakness.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  He who is everywhere, is nowhere.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more that is poor.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  "How much progress shall I make?" you ask, "just as much as you try to make."

• 12:00Speaker 01

  Wisdom comes haphazard to no man.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  This is our big mistake, to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.

• 12:22Speaker 01

  If what you have seems insufficient to you, then though you possess the world, you will yet be miserable.

• 12:33Speaker 01

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

• 12:40Speaker 01

  It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  Nothing delights the mind as much as loving in loyal friendship.

• 12:57Speaker 01

  Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.

• 13:04Speaker 01

  Excellence withers without an adversary.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  Joy comes to us from those whom we love, even when they are absent.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  "What progress have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself."

• 13:26Speaker 01

  If my wealth goes away, it takes with it nothing but itself.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Epictetus

• 13:37Speaker 01

  If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid.

• 13:46Speaker 01

  Don't just say that you have read books. Show that through them, you have learned to think better.

• 13:56Speaker 01

  I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

• 14:12Speaker 01

  You become what you give your attention to.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  It's impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

• 14:49Speaker 01

  If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  It's not things that upset us, but our judgments about things.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Circumstances don't make the man. They only reveal him to himself.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Welcome events in whichever way they happen. This is the path to peace.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

• 15:43Speaker 01

  The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  No man is free who is not master of himself.

• 16:03Speaker 01

  The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  Seek not the good in external things, seek it in yourselves.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  Curb your desire. Don't set your heart on so many things, and you will get what you need.

• 16:45Speaker 01

  Devote the rest of your life to making progress.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  If you lay violent hands on me, you'll have my body, but my mind will remain with Stillpo.

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Happiness is a good flow of life.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  A bad feeling is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason and against nature.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  Man conquers the world by conquering himself.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  He is best of all men who follows good advice. Good too is he who finds out all things for himself.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  No loss should be more regrettable to us than losing our time, for it's irretrievable.

• 18:13Speaker 01

  Follow where reason leads.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  Steal your sensibilities, so that life shall hurt you as little as possible.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  No evil is honorable, but death is honorable. Therefore, death is not evil.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  All the good are friends of one another.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  No one entrusts a secret to a drunken man, but one will entrust a secret to a good man. Therefore, the good man will not get drunk.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  All things are parts of one single system, which is called nature. The individual life is good when it is in harmony with nature.

• 19:08Speaker 01

  Seeing that the universe gives birth to beings that are animate and wise, should it not be considered animate and wise itself?

• 19:19Speaker 01

  The end may be defined as life in accordance with nature, or, in other words, in accordance with our own human nature, as well as that of the universe.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men too. Even if they don't want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Fate is the endless chain of connection, whereby things are, the reason or principle by which the world goes on.

• 20:11Speaker 01

  Man seems to be deficient in nothing, so much as he is in time.