There are more quotes available for us to read from the Stoics about pain and illness than nearly any other topic. That’s not because Stoicism teaches that we should like discomfort, but rather because the Stoics are concerned with how to NOT let pain and sickness have any more control over us than it should.
For Stoics, philosophy means getting rid of bad emotions like fear and accentuating good emotions like joy. By learning how to lessen our fear and anxiety from pain or illness, we become happier and can live more fulfilled lives. Stoicism doesn’t teach us hoe to never experience pain or never get sick, but it does teach us to be calmer when they do happen and take the right perspective on setbacks.
It’s worth remembering that all of the ancient Stoic philosophers quoted here experienced their own share of pain and illness, so their advice is something they actually applied to their own misfortunes. We hope these quotes help you learn more about how Stoicism can help you face with pain and sickness, but we also encourage you to read more about the lives of the philosophers who wrote them.
Stoic Quotes on Pain & Illness from Marcus Aurelius
“We should treat painful sensations like wild dogs. They will bite and tear at our heels the more we try to flee in panic but will often back down if we have the courage to turn and face them calmly.“
“So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.“
“Remember that the fear of pain does more harm than pain itself . . . One exaggerates, imagines, anticipates affliction. Do not let us build a second story to our sorrow by being sorry for our sorrow.“
Stoic Quotes on Pain & Illness from Epictetus
“Sickness is a problem for the body, not the mind — unless the mind decides that it is a problem. Lameness, too, is the body’s problem, not the mind’s. Say this to yourself whatever the circumstance and you will find without fail that the problem pertains to something else, not to you.“
“It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.“
“In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.“
Stoic Quotes on Pain & Illness from Seneca
“Illness has actually given many people a new lease on life; the experience of being near to death has been their preservation. You will die not because you are sick but because you are alive. That end still awaits you when you have been cured.”
“There is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad.“
“My own advice to you — and not only in the present illness but in your whole life as well — is this: refuse to let the thought of death bother you. Nothing is grim when we have escaped that fear.“