Quotation of the Day
2nd June 2026
This is the foundational idea of Stoic philosophy, stated most clearly by the former slave and Stoic teacher Epictetus, who was one of Marcus’s primary influences:
“Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”
The practice is deceptively simple: before any situation that causes you distress, draw a line. On one side, everything you can directly control — your response, your effort, your attention, your values. On the other, everything you cannot — other people’s opinions, outcomes, the past, the weather, the economy, what happens after you die.
Stoics do not say the second category doesn’t matter. They say that directing your energy toward it is structurally irrational — it cannot change the outcome and it costs you the energy you need for the first category.