Stocism is a philosophy of stark realism and personal discipline that
began in ancient Greece and continued as a living philosophy through the
first century AD. Stoic maxims reflect their unique view of life and
provide the casual onlooker with some profound insights into life. A
terrific and source of these maxims can be found in "The Reign of the
Stoics" by Frederic May Holland, published by Charles P. Somerby.
Unfortunately, it was published in 1896 so it is a litte hard to find
today. Instead I will provide you with a few of my favorites in the
following lines.
What we bear is not so important as how we bear it.
We become happy by not needing happiness.
Take care not to make your pain greater by your complaints.
Who has the most? He who desires the least.
This is education: to learn to wish that things should happen as they
do.
Freedom is not gained by satisfying, but by restraining our
desires.
Calamity is opportunity for courage.
A man should stand upright, and not be kept upright by others.
He has the longest of lives who suffers no time to be lost.
They who do not keep striving to advance fall back; no one finds
his progress as he left it.
The arts serve life, but wisdom rules it.
He who spares the bad wrongs the good.
Truth conquers by itself, opinion by appealing to externals.
Virtue does not come until the character is formed, and taught, and
developed by continual exercise.
No one is good by accident, virtue must be learned.