Life is always going to be full of challenges that are out of our control. What is in our control is what we do in the face of these obstacles. In our collection of Stoic quotes about endurance and resilience, you'll find practical perspectives that will help you deal with whatever life throws your way.
In the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and others, there is timeless advice about how to stay true to the Stoic virtues and maintain mental calmness in the storm of life.
Endurance is an essential element of what separates truly successful people from those that simply have potential. It's easy to wake up and get to work when everything's going your way, but not so simple when it feels like the universe is conspiring against you.
Understanding the notion of amor fati-- the love of one's fate-- is important to grasping the Stoic perspective on endurance. Rather than hanging your head when something bad happens, you can work to have a wider perspective and see that this is an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop mental toughness.
It can be tempting to curl up into a ball when the going gets tough, but what you are experiencing is precisely the moment that separates the greatest men and women of history from the crowd.
"Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure."
– Marcus Aurelius
“Everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it’s endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it’s unendurable… then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well. Just remember: you can endure anything your mind can make endurable, by treating it as in your interest to do so. In your interest, or in your nature.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“What would have become of Hercules, do you think, if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar – and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules.”
– Epictetus
"Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, 'This is a misfortune' but 'To bear this worthily is good fortune.'"
– Marcus Aurelius
“Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own inner resources. The trails we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. Prudent people look beyond the incident itself and seek to form the habit of putting it to good use. On the occasion of an accidental event, don’t just react in a haphazard fashion: remember to turn inward and ask what resources you have for dealing with it. Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.”
– Epictetus
"Ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?’ You’ll be embarrassed to answer."
– Marcus Aurelius
“Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on—it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"Too many people believe that everything must be pleasurable in life."
– Robert Greene
"Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about."
– Winston Churchill
"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second."
– William James
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."
– Christopher Reeve
"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes."
– Gautama Buddha
"Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within. It is within the process of endurance that opportunity reveals itself."
– Chin-Ning Chu
"All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one... characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers."
– Henry David Thoreau
"Many can brook the weather that love not the wind."
– William Shakespeare
"The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world brother."
– Charles Dickens
"Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must."
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas."
– Albert Einstein
Our modern culture values comfort and ease-- it's possible to live a life hiding from the type of hardship that has plagued humanity throughout history. We are molded by our society to value immediate gratification and convenience and to fear or despise anything that doesn't fall into these categories. The reality is, though, that staying in our comfort zone is a recipe for an unfulfilling life.
For this reason, it's important to push ourselves beyond the point of comfort with some regularity. This is how we can build resilience both to the tiny annoyances of life and the major catastrophes. With the wisdom of the Stoics and other great thinkers, we can learn how to build ourselves up so that we aren't completely knocked down by the external events of life.
"To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden."
– Seneca the Younger
"You need to be prepared for firm decisions and action, without losing gentleness towards those who obstruct or abuse you. It's as great a weakness to be angry with them as it is to abandon your plan of action and give up through fear."
– Marcus Aurelius
“We must take a higher view of all things, and bear with them more easily: it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to lament over it.”
– Seneca the Younger
Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee."
– Marcus Aurelius
"It’s unfortunate that this has happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it—not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it."
– Marcus Aurelius
“To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”
– Viktor Frankl
"Don't pray for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs."
– Gautama Buddha
"No one's life is a smooth sail; we all come into stormy weather. But it's this adversity - and more specifically our resilience - that makes us strong and successful."
– Tony Robbins
"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
– Walt Disney
"What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"That which does not destroy, strengthens."
– Friedrich Nietzsche
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved."
– Helen Keller
"The more obstacles you face and overcome, the more times you falter and get back on track, the more difficulties you struggle with and conquer, the more resiliency you will naturally develop. There is nothing that can hold you back, if you are resilient."
– Jim Rohn
While resilience is our ability to adapt or recover after dealing with difficult events, perseverance is the act of continuing to push forward even when your route is fraught with obstacles.
To persevere in the face of difficulties and challenges, you must find a way to embrace discomfort and uncertainty. Both resilience and perseverance are necessary to endure the trials of life with a truly calm mind.
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
– Marcus Aurelius
"Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing."
– Seneca the Younger
"The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around. That's all you need to know."
– Marcus Aurelius
“Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life.
– Seneca the Younger
"To stop talking about what the good person is like, and just be one.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."
– Thomas Edison
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
– Confucius
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
– Winston Churchill
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."
– Pablo Picasso
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
– Albert Einstein
"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody."
"Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield."
– Benjamin Franklin
"Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately."
– Andrew Carnegie
“Life is thickly sown with thorns. I know no other remedy than to pass rapidly over them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes the greater is their power to harm us.”
– Voltaire
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Of course, there would be no need to develop endurance, resilience, or perseverance if you lived a life free of adversity. Who among us, though, can state with certainty that we'll never face any difficulties?
You might find yourself hoping that nothing bad ever happens to you-- many of us do. The truth is, though, that the worst things that occur in our lives are often blessings in disguise. They are opportunities to learn important lessons that we can carry forward with us and apply later on while also being opportunities to learn about the inner resources we've had hidden inside all along.
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"Great men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war."
– Seneca the Younger
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”
– Epictetus
"When jarred, unavoidably, by circumstance revert at once to yourself and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of harmony if you keep going back to it."
"Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one."
– Epictetus
“A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. It is more powerful than external circumstances."
– Seneca the Younger
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"As it is pleasant to see the sea from the land, so it is pleasant for him who has escaped from troubles to think of them."
– Epictetus
"Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men."
– Seneca the Younger
"In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things."
– Epictetus
"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant."
– Horace
“If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.”
– Michael Jordan
“It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.”
– Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Courage is one of the four Stoic virtues, along with wisdom, temperance, and justice. To be courageous doesn't mean that you don't feel afraid or anxious. Instead, it means that you do the right thing even though you are filled with negative emotions that tell you to take the easier, less virtuous path.
In order to endure the challenges of life, courage is essential. Of course, all of the cardinal virtues are interrelated-- the Stoics believed that you had to possess all four in order to have one of them. This means that building endurance and resilience requires that you also cultivate the wisdom to distinguish right from wrong, justice to perform your duty to humanity, and temperance to exhibit proper self-control.
"Courage leads to heaven; fear leads to death."
– Seneca the Younger
“In any events, however seemingly dire, there is nothing to prevent us from searching for its hidden opportunity. It is a failure of the imagination not to do so. But to seek out the opportunity in situations requires a great deal of courage, for most people around you will persist in interpreting events in the grossest terms: success or failure, good or bad, right or wrong. These simplistic, polarized categories obscure more creative—and useful—interpretations of events that are far more advantageous and interesting! The wise person knows it is fruitless to project hopes and fears on the future. This only leads to forming melodramatic representations in your mind and wasting time. At the same time, one shouldn’t passively acquiesce to the future and what it holds. Simply doing nothing does not avoid risk, but heightens it.”
– Epictetus
"Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts."
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
"Life without the courage for death is slavery."
– Seneca the Younger
"Fortune can take away riches, but not courage."
– Seneca the Younger
"It shows a brave and resolute spirit not to be agitated in exciting circumstances."
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
"There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage."
– Seneca the Younger
"Our fears are always more numerous than our dangers."
– Seneca the Younger
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."
– Seneca the Younger
"The point is not how long you live, but how nobly you live."
– Seneca the Younger
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
– Anais Nin
The history of humanity is littered with stories of people who could have been truly great but gave us before they got there. We all know people that are full of potential but seem not to understand that they need to show up every day to achieve success.
Rome wasn't built in a day. You can't create a good, virtuous life in one afternoon when you feel particularly motivated. It's something that you have to chip away at day after day.
As Laozi famously said in the Tao Te Ching, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In order to get where you want to go, you need to have the mental toughness to persist against all odds.
At the same time, Marcus Aurelius reminds us that it's essential to be deliberate about where we aim our persistence. In one of his more famous quotes, he states that it's important to be able to change one's mind if they are proven wrong, as his commitment is to the truth. Truth, he says, "never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance."
“You must build up your life action by action, and be content if each one achieves its goal as far as possible–and no one can keep you from this. But there will be some external obstacle! Perhaps, but no obstacle to acting with justice, self-control, and wisdom. But what if some other area of my action is thwarted? Well, gladly accept the obstacle for what it is and shift your attention to what is given, and another action will immediately take its place, one that better fits the life you are building.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word - on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.”
– Epictetus
"Away with the world's opinion of you-it's always unsettled and divided."
– Seneca the Younger
"Two words should be taken to heart and obeyed when exerting ourselves for good and restraining ourselves from evil—words that will ensure a blameless and troubled life: persist and resist."
– Epictetus
“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.”
– Marcus Aurelius
"For remember that, if you are persistent, those very persons who at first ridiculed will afterwards admire you. But if you are conquered by them, you will incur a double ridicule."
– Epictetus
"To err is human, but to persist (in the mistake) is diabolical."
– Seneca the Younger
“Most people are impulsive, however, and having committed to the thing, they persist, just making more confusion for themselves and others until it all end in mutual recrimination.”
– Epictetus
“People aren’t in awe of your sharp mind? So be it. But you have many other qualities you can’t claim to have been deprived of at birth. Display then those qualities in your own power: honesty, dignity, endurance, chastity, contentment, frugality, kindness, freedom, persistence, avoiding gossip, and magnanimity.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. Remain steadfast...and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.”
– Epictetus
Building inner strength and mental toughness are key to developing endurance and resilience in life. The more that you are "arched and buttressed from within," as Marcus Aurelius puts it, the better able you will be to withstand the events that occur in your life.
"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."
– Marcus Aurelius
"Let us, too, overcome all things, with our reward consisting not in any wreath or garland, not in trumpet-calls for silence for the ceremonial proclamation of our name, but in moral worth, in strength of spirit, in a peace that is won forever once in any contest fortune has been utterly defeated."
– Seneca the Younger
“Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on—it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”
– Marcus Aurelius
“If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.”
– Epictetus
"Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust."
– Marcus Aurelius
"Constant misfortune brings this one blessing: to whom it always assails, it eventually fortifies."
– Seneca the Younger
"Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look."
– Marcus Aurelius
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."
– Marcus Aurelius
“Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”
– Haruki Murakami
“Strength is the ability to maintain a hold of oneself. It’s being the person who never gets mad, who cannot be rattled, because they are in control of their passions—rather than controlled by their passions.”
– Ryan Holiday
Finally, let's look at a few Stoic quotes about perspective. After all, your ability to build endurance and resilience is intricately connected with the way that you view what happens in your life. If you are constantly playing the victim or feeling like the world is against you, you will struggle to access the inner resources you have that contribute to your ability to persevere, persist, and achieve what you want in life.
“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”
– Epictetus
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
– Marcus Aurelius
“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
– Epictetus
"The place one's in, though, doesn't make any contribution to peace of mind: it's the spirit that makes everything agreeable to oneself."
– Seneca the Younger
“Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious. Don’t sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”
– Epictetus
"A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is."
– Seneca the Younger
Adopting the principles of Stoicism might not lead to the easiest life, but if we are to believe in the wisdom and words of the ancient Stoic philosophers, it will lead to a good life. It's terrifyingly easy to lead a life of comfort and instant gratification in our modern world, but this path will leave you ill-prepared when something undesirable or even tragic inevitably occurs.
Developing endurance and resilience, along with perseverance, persistence, courage, and mental strength, will be essential on your journey to leading the best possible life.
Revisit this list of quotes whenever you're ready to throw in the towel and give up. You'll find that consulting with quotes from the Stoics will help you apply Stoic principles to your day-to-day experience and, one day at a time, walk the path to a good, virtuous life.
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