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Stoicism for Losing Money
Money is preferred, not required, for a good life — a core Stoic distinction. Losing it is painful and real, but it does not touch your character unless you let the loss define you. The loss is outside; your response is inside.
Stoic ideas for this
“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.”
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
Epictetus · Fragments
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
Wealth is able to buy the pleasures of eating, drinking and other sensual pursuits, yet can never afford a cheerful spirit or freedom from sorrow.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
“Never say of anything "I have lost it"; but, "I have given it back." Your child is dead — it has been given back. Your wife is dead — she has been given back.”
Epictetus · Enchiridion
Every person must be content with what he has.
Epictetus · Enchiridion
The rich man is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
If you set your heart on what is not your own, you will lose what is.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
Wealth is the ability to fully use the goods of fortune.
Zeno of Citium · Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers
When someone steals your lamp, remember that he gave it up for a thief.
Epictetus · Discourses
Fortune can take away wealth, but not courage.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
With regard to whatever objects give you delight, remember to say: what is the nature of this? It is mortal, and will not be yours always.
Epictetus · Enchiridion
The wise man has few wants, and therefore has much.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
The one who wants little is closer to the gods than the one who wants much.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
He who is content with enough is rich.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
If you are content with little, you need little; and needing little, you are free.
Epictetus · Discourses
Do not set your heart on what fortune can take away.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
The riches of the mind are the only riches that cannot be taken from you.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
True wealth is not in what you own, but in what you can do without.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
Be grateful for what fortune gives, and unafraid of what it takes.
Seneca · Letters from a Stoic
Live according to virtue, and no circumstance can make you poor.
Musonius Rufus · Lectures
Be content with your own share, and you will never be poor.
Marcus Aurelius · Meditations
Put it into practice
A Stoic tool is only useful if you actually use it. Try this small loop the next time losing money shows up:
- Name it plainly. Say what is happening without the story you are adding on top of it.
- Split what’s yours from what isn’t. Invest your energy only in the part you can actually choose.
- Do one small thing. A single deliberate action today beats a week of intending to.