04 / The Voices

Every quote,
from the source.

The complete Wikiquote corpus for the principal Stoic voices — Zeno, Chrysippus, Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius — grouped by author, searchable, and downloadable as social cards. (Cleanthes and Musonius Rufus have no Wikiquote entry.)

Zeno of Citium
Voice / zeno

Zeno of Citium

10 passages from Wikiquote.

001
“Happiness is a good flow of life.”
As quoted by Stobaeus, ii. 77.
002
“No one entrusts a secret to a drunken man; but one will entrust a secret to a good man; therefore, the good man will not get drunk.”
As quoted in Epistulae morales ad Lucilium by Seneca, Epistle LXXXIII (trans. R. M. Gummere)
003
“(The end is) life in agreement with nature”
As quoted by Diogenes Laërtius, in Lives of Eminent Philosophers: 'Zeno', 7.87.: “This is why Zeno was the first (in his treatise On the Nature of Man) to designate as the end ‘life in agreement with nature’ (or living agreeably to nature)...”
004
“Love is a God, who cooperates in securing the safety of the city.”
As quoted in Deipnosophists by Athenaeus, xiii. 561c.
005
“All the good are friends of one another.”
As quoted in Stromata, v. 14. by Clement of Alexandria
006
“We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.”
As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii. 23.
007
“No evil is honorable; but death is honorable; therefore death is not evil.”
As quoted in Epistles No. 82, by Seneca the Younger
008
“A bad feeling is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason, and against nature.”
As quoted in Tusculanae Quaestiones by Cicero, iv. 6.
009
“That which exercises reason is more excellent than that which does not exercise reason; there is nothing more excellent than the universe, therefore the universe exercises reason.”
As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, ii. 8.; iii. 9.
010
“If melodiously piping flutes sprang from the olive, would you doubt that a knowledge of flute-playing resided in the olive? And what if plane trees bore harps which gave forth rhythmical sounds? Clearly you would think in the same way that the art of music was possessed by plane trees. Why, then, seeing that the universe gives birth to beings that are animate and wise, should it not be considered animate and wise itself?”
As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, ii. 8.

Source: each author’s page on en.wikiquote.org — translations and citations follow that page. Cleanthes and Musonius Rufus do not currently have Wikiquote articles and are omitted here.