The best Stoic quotes about control

At the heart of Stoic philosophy is the principle of control—not over external events, but over our own thoughts and reactions.

This idea has been a game changer in my life, significantly reducing feelings of anxiety and stress, and leading to a more purposeful way of living. Stoicism, especially its teachings on control, provides practical strategies for maintaining calmness and clarity regardless of outside circumstances.

Today, we’ll get into some insights from renowned Stoic philosophers—Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca—and explore how their wisdom can be applied to our lives today.

Let’s dive in.

Marcus Aurelius quotes about control

• “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
• “The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
• “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
• “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
• “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”
• “Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”
• “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

Epictetus quotes about control

• “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”
• “The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”
• “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
• “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
• “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
• “Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.”
• “Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
• “What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.”
• “Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.”
• “It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous—even death is terrible only if we fear it.”
• “If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone.”

Seneca quotes about control

• “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
• “If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
• “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
• “Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”
• “Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope … and you will cease to fear.’”
• “Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they have escaped them worry no more. We however are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come.”
• “No one confines his unhappiness to the present.”
• “While we wait for life, life passes.”
• “True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”

What We Can Learn from Stoicism About Control

Stoicism offers timeless wisdom on mastering the art of control, teaching us to distinguish between what we can change and what we must accept. This philosophy empowers us to maintain serenity and effectiveness in the face of life’s inevitable challenges.

Here are five of my key takeaways.