Passions And Emotions; 10 Stoic Quotes That Will Help You Gain Control Over Your Life
Take control of your own life with the help of many great stoic philosophers. Practice virtue and do not let your emotions override.
Heavily based on Ryan Holiday’s bestseller, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living.
What Are Passions And Emotions?
A passion is a strong, barely controllable emotion.
An emotion is a strong feeling deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others.
The two together can become a fierce force that takes lots of effort and energy to overcome.
The Risks Of Giving In
Passions and emotions are incredibly intense, and it may become difficult to ignore the urges and temptations.
Sometimes, this can work in your favour.
Often, however, giving in to the urges and temptations, which are often negative, works to go against you, and only harms you.
A few examples of the risks:
- Giving in to procrastination harms your productivity
- You may get distracted and your focus can slip
- Your thoughts may become negatively clouded
- You may begin to lack motivation and discipline
- You may lash out and react badly
- You may fall down a dark path
When you give into negative emotions, you give away your control.
You simply become a puppet, and you lack control over your actions and thoughts.
What type of life is that?
Take Back Control
The ancient stoics advise us to take back control, and not to become a puppet to our emotions.
You have the power to stop emotions, temptations, urges and passions from affecting you.
10 Stoic quotes that provide a way through:
I. For The Hot Headed Man
“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, Meditations, 11.18.5b
II. The Source Of Your Anxiety
“When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, what do they want? For if a person wasn’t wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?”
— Epictetus, Discourses, 2.13.1
III. Steady Your Impulses
‘Don’t be bounced around, but submit to every impulse to the claims of justice, and protect your clear conviction in every appearance.’
— Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS 4.22
IV. You Don’t Have To Have An Opinion
“We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind — for things have no natural power to shape our judgments.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.52
V. Anger Is Bad Fuel
“There is no more stupefying thing than anger, nothing more bent on its own strength. If successful, none more arrogant, if foiled, none more insane–since it’s not driven back by weariness even in defeat, when fortune removes its adversary it turns its teeth on itself.”
— Seneca, On Anger, 3.1.5
VI. Only Bad Dreams
“Clear your mind and get a hold on yourself and, as when awakened from sleep and realizing it was only a bad dream upsetting you, wake up and see that what’s there is just like those dreams.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.31
VII. The Enemy Of Happiness
“It is quite impossible to unite happiness with a yearning for what we don’t have. Happiness has all that it wants, and resembling the well-fed, there shouldn’t be hunger or thirst.”
— Epictetus, Discourses, 3.24.17
VIII. The Real Source Of Harm
“Keep in mind that it isn’t the one who has it in for you and takes a swipe that harms you, but rather the harm comes from your own belief about the abuse. So when someone arouses your anger, know that it’s really your own opinion fueling it. Instead, make it your first response not to be carried away by such impressions, for with time and distance self-mastery is more easily achieved.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, 20
IX. Better Left Unsaid
“Cato practiced the kind of public speech capable of moving the masses, believing proper political philosophy takes care like any great city to maintain the warlike element. But he was never seen practicing in front of others, and no one ever heard him rehearse a speech. When he was told that people blamed him for his silence, he replied, ‘Better they not blame my life. I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.’”
— Plutarch, Cato The Younger, 4
X. Pleasure Can Become Punishment
“Whenever you get an impression of some pleasure, as with any impression, guard yourself from being carried away by it, let it await your action, give yourself a pause. After that, bring to mind both times, first when you have enjoyed the pleasure and later when you will regret it and hate yourself. Then compare to those the joy and satisfaction you’d feel for abstaining altogether. However, if a seemingly appropriate time arises to act on it, don’t be overcome by its comfort, pleasantness, and allure — but against all of this, how much better the consciousness of conquering it.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, 34
