The Best Quotes I’ve Found On Living A Good Life
Lessons From Stoics, Philosophers, and Thinkers
Before we arrived on the planet, men have lived and died for ages. Many of these men have experienced living a good life. Isn’t it wise to learn from these men so we can design our own good lives?
While there’s no one universal definition of a good life, we can learn from the teachings of the great philosophers and stoics to define our own good lives.
Here are the top 10 good life quotes to live by:
1. Be indifferent to what makes no difference
“To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference.” — Marcus Aurelius
2. Focus on the essentials
“Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’ But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well. To eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.” — Marcus Aurelius
3. Embrace your mortality
“Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. What’s fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now.” — Marcus Aurelius
4. Have a good character
“A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.” — Seneca
5. Count each day as a separate life
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” — Seneca
6. Live immediately
“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. You are arranging what lies in Fortune’s control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.” — Seneca
7. Live in accordance with nature
In the book, The Art of the Good Life, Rolf Dobelli tells how Epictetus defined the good life:
“A life that flows gently and easily.” — Epictetus
8. Adopt a philosophy
“The best reason for adopting a philosophy of life, is that if we lack one, there is a danger that we will mislive” — William Ervine, A Guide to the Good Life
9. Beware of a busy life
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” — Socrates
10. Examine your life
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
11. Set a direction
“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.” — Carl Rogers
12. Pursue what you care about
“Life comes from physical survival; but the good life comes from what we care about.” — Rollo May
13. Use your signature strengths
“The good life consists in deriving happiness by using your signature strengths every day in the main realms of living. The meaningful life adds one more component: using these same strengths to forward knowledge, power or goodness.” — Martin Seligman
14. Change your perception
“Life is good when we think it’s good. Life is bad when we don’t think.” — Douglas Horton
It’s not enough to read these quotes once and be done with them. To make the most of these quotes, contemplate on them, go to their source, and derive your own meaning from them.
According to Seneca, learning how to live is the hardest and most important thing to learn.
Let’s not waste any more of our precious time. Let’s use the wisdom from these men to live our epic lives.
A good life starts with a good day…
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Originally published at DesignEpicLife.com
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