Stoic affirmations
Stoic affirmations
The searches for affirmations — self-love, mornings, anxiety — answered with the sentences of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus themselves. Each page quotes public-domain editions word for word, gives every passage its exact reference, and says where a Stoic sentence parts from a positive affirmation.
Stoic morning affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Morning affirmations from the Stoics: Marcus Aurelius on rising to the work of a human being, Seneca on each day as the last — each with its reference.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, II, 1 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, V, 1 · Seneca, Letter 12, §8 · Seneca, Letter 12, §9
Stoic self-love affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Self-love affirmations from the Stoics: Seneca on keeping one’s own company, Marcus Aurelius on the opinion of others, Epictetus — each with its reference.
Seneca, Letter 9, §16 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, XII, 4 · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XLVIII
Stoic affirmations for anxiety, in the Stoics’ own words
Affirmations for anxiety from the Stoics: Seneca on suffering more in imagination than in reality, Marcus Aurelius on the present moment, with references.
Seneca, Letter 13, §4 · Seneca, Letter 13, §5 · Seneca, Letter 13, §10 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VIII, 36
Stoic self-worth affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Self-worth and self-esteem affirmations from the Stoics: Epictetus on what is in our power, Marcus Aurelius on praise that adds nothing — with references.
Epictetus, Enchiridion, I · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XXIV · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV, 20
Stoic gratitude affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Gratitude affirmations from the Stoics: Marcus Aurelius on what he owes family, teachers and the gods, Seneca on the fool’s life — each with its reference.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, I, 17 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI, 48 · Seneca, Letter 15, §9 · Seneca, Letter 15, §10
Stoic confidence affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Confidence affirmations from the Stoics: Seneca on faith in oneself won by difficulty, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius on others’ opinion, with references.
Seneca, Letter 13, §1 · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XXIII · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XX · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, III, 4
Stoic affirmations for inner peace, in the Stoics’ own words
Calming affirmations from the Stoics: Marcus Aurelius on the retreat into oneself, Seneca on travel that cures nothing, Epictetus — each referenced.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV, 3 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VII, 28 · Seneca, Letter 28, §4 · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XII
Stoic strength and resilience affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Strength and resilience affirmations from the Stoics: Marcus Aurelius on the obstacle and the promontory, Seneca on hardship and pain, each one referenced.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, V, 20 · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IV, 49 · Seneca, On Providence, IV · Seneca, Letter 78, §13
Stoic grief affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Grief in the Stoics’ own words: Seneca on tears and on the friend he mourned, the Consolation to Marcia, Marcus Aurelius on the fear of loss, referenced.
Seneca, Letter 63, §1 · Seneca, Letter 63, §14 · Seneca, To Marcia on Consolation, VII · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, IX, 40
Stoic letting go affirmations, in the Stoics’ own words
Letting go affirmations from the Stoics: Epictetus on the inn and on freedom, Marcus Aurelius on receiving and letting go, Seneca on fate — referenced.
Epictetus, Enchiridion, XI · Epictetus, Enchiridion, XIV · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VIII, 33 · Seneca, Letter 107, §9
How a page is made
A page starts from the texts. The sentences under “In the texts” are copied word for word from the editions listed on the Sources page and located at their line in the source file, with the translator and the year. None is rewritten in the first person, cut down to a slogan or printed without its reference.
The prose around them says what the passage argues and in which work. The last section of each page sets out why the Stoic sentence is not a positive affirmation: it does not hold that a thing becomes true by being repeated; it separates the judgments that are in one’s power from the things that are not. The terms a page rests on lead to the Glossary.
Every passage in Stoïque carries its reference — the work and its locator, the author too wherever the room allows — in the app and in its widgets, on the Home Screen and the Lock Screen.