“Your actions might be up to you, but the outcomes are not. So stop judging yourself on whether or not you hit your targets. Instead, focus on how well you prepared for it. Focus on the process, not the outcome.” — Phil Van Treuren
Self-control and discipline was important to the ancient practitioners of Stoicism, just as it’s important to many people today. There are countless Stoic quotes that focus on advice for controlling ourselves and our desires, because even the original philosophers of Stoicism we human beings who were susceptible to the same shortcomings, passions and distractions that we are today.
It’s one thing to know what is right and talk about it; it’s another thing entirely to actually DO what’s right, on a consistent basis, and it takes the kind of self control that many people aren’t disciplined enough to display. Studying Stoicism — and the examples of others who’ve experienced the same struggles — helps us find that discipline to do what’s right in our lives.
Because self control is such a common theme in Stoicism, keep in mind that the quotes below only scratch the surface of lessons on self-discipline that you’ll find from these philosophers. It’s something you’ll have to devote serious attention to if you want to change your frame of mind and exhibit more control over your attitude and choices.
Stoic Quotes on Discipline & Self Control from Marcus Aurelius
“We should discipline ourselves in small things, and from these progress to things of greater value.”
“Stop allowing your mind to be a slave, to be jerked about by selfish impulses, to kick against fate and the present, and to mistrust the future.“
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.“
“When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.”
Stoic Quotes on Discipline & Self Control from Epictetus
“Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.“
“No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
Stoic Quotes on Discipline & Self Control from Seneca
“The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.“
“Our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of a sage and the ways of the world at large; all men should admire it, but they should understand it also.“
“Who does not admit that all the emotions flow as it were from a certain natural source? We are endowed by Nature with an interest in our own well-being; but this very interest, when over indulged, becomes a vice. Nature has intermingled pleasure with necessary things — not in order that we should seek pleasure, but in order that the addition of pleasure may make the indispensable means of existence attractive to our eyes. Should it claim rights of its own, it is luxury. Let us therefore resist these faults when they are demanding entrance, because, as I have said, it is easier to deny them admittance than to make them depart.”