The Stoics did not hope for an easy life. Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus all treated adversity as training: the thing that shows what you are made of and the only way to get stronger. Below are 21 of their lines on hardship, each checked word for word against a public-domain translation, with the work and section so you can look them up yourself.
The short episode above reads Seneca's prize fighter passage (the second quote below) and reflects on it. There is a written version on the prize fighter episode page.
Seneca on adversity
Seneca wrote more about hardship than the other two, most directly in his essay On Providence, which asks why bad things happen to good people.
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
Seneca, Letters 13.4 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent's fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary's charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever.
Seneca, Letters 13.2 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men.
Seneca, On Providence 5 (trans. Aubrey Stewart)
Unbroken prosperity cannot bear a single blow; but he who has waged an unceasing strife with his misfortunes has gained a thicker skin by his sufferings, yields to no disaster, and even though he fall yet fights on his knee.
Seneca, On Providence 2 (trans. Aubrey Stewart)
their strength and courage droop without an antagonist: they can only prove how great and how mighty it is by proving how much they can endure.
Seneca, On Providence 2 (trans. Aubrey Stewart), on athletes who ask their trainers not to hold back
“No one,” said he, “seems to me more unhappy than the man whom no misfortune has ever befallen.”
Seneca quoting the Cynic Demetrius, On Providence 3 (trans. Aubrey Stewart)
I think you unhappy because you never have been unhappy: you have passed through your life without meeting an antagonist: no one will know your powers, not even you yourself.
Seneca, On Providence 4 (trans. Aubrey Stewart)
And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle.
Seneca, Letters 96.5 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.
Seneca, Letters 78.2 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
Seneca wrote that last line about a period of serious illness, when only the thought of his father kept him going.
That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure, and to attend uncomplainingly upon the God under whose guidance everything progresses; for it is a bad soldier who grumbles when following his commander.
Seneca, Letters 107.9 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.
Cleanthes, in Seneca's verse translation, Letters 107.11 (trans. Richard M. Gummere)
Marcus Aurelius on adversity
Marcus wrote these notes to himself, often while on campaign. His focus is on what the mind does with a setback.
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it. Unhappy am I because this has happened to me? Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.49 (trans. George Long)
for the mind converts and changes every hindrance to its activity into an aid; and so that which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act; and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.20 (trans. George Long)
This is the passage behind the popular line "the obstacle is the way". The slogan compresses a modern translation's wording rather than quoting Marcus directly. The full story is in "The Obstacle Is the Way": What Marcus Aurelius Actually Wrote.
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.47 (trans. George Long)
Remember, however, that thou art formed by nature to bear everything, with respect to which it depends on thy own opinion to make it endurable and tolerable, by thinking that it is either thy interest or thy duty to do this.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.3 (trans. George Long)
pain is neither intolerable nor everlasting, if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.64 (trans. George Long), borrowing a remark of Epicurus
If however any man by using force stands in thy way, betake thyself to contentment and tranquillity, and at the same time employ the hindrance towards the exercise of some other virtue
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.50 (trans. George Long)
Epictetus on adversity
Epictetus spent his early life as a slave and was lame, by his own account. His lines on hardship tend to use the gym and the wrestling ground.
It is difficulties that show what men are. Consequently, when a difficulty befalls, remember that God, like a physical trainer, has matched you with a rugged young man. What for? some one says. So that you may become an Olympic victor; but that cannot be done without sweat.
Epictetus, Discourses 1.24.1–2 (trans. W. A. Oldfather)
Why, what good does the athlete get from the man who wrestles with him? The greatest. So my reviler helps to train me for the contest: he trains me to be patient, dispassionate, gentle.
Epictetus, Discourses 3.20 (trans. P. E. Matheson)
Come, have you not received faculties that enable you to bear whatever happens? Have you not received magnanimity? Have you not received courage? Have you not received endurance?
Epictetus, Discourses 1.6.28 (trans. W. A. Oldfather)
Sickness is a hindrance to the body, but not to the will, unless the will consent. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, but not to the will. Say this to yourself at each event that happens, for you shall find that though it hinders something else it will not hinder you.
Epictetus, Enchiridion 9 (trans. P. E. Matheson)
One way to use these
A quote only helps if it is ready when the difficulty arrives. Three ways to make that more likely:
- Pick one line for the hard thing you are facing now. If it is fear of something that has not happened yet, Letters 13.4. If it is a person making life hard, Discourses 3.20. If it is illness or injury, Enchiridion 9. Write it where you will see it.
- Ask the trainer question. Epictetus's image in Discourses 1.24 suggests a plain question: if this difficulty were a training partner, what would it be training? Patience, courage, honesty, self-control. Name one.
- Look back before you look forward. Seneca's prize fighter enters the ring with confidence because he has already taken hits. List two hard periods you came through and what they left you with. That record is evidence for the next one.
For more sourced lines across every theme, see the main collection of Stoic quotes.
Sources
- Seneca, Letters 13.2, 13.4, 78.2, 96.5, 107.9, 107.11, trans. Richard M. Gummere (Loeb, 1917–25).
- Seneca, On Providence 2, 3, 4, 5, trans. Aubrey Stewart (1889).
- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.49, 5.20, 6.50, 7.64, 8.47, 10.3, trans. George Long (1862).
- Epictetus, Discourses 1.6.28 and 1.24.1–2, trans. W. A. Oldfather (Loeb, 1925); 3.20, trans. P. E. Matheson (1916).
- Epictetus, Enchiridion 9, trans. P. E. Matheson (1916).
If you want structured practice, the 7-Day Stoic Challenge is free. Nine audio lessons and a 42-page workbook.