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What Would Stoics Do

Stoic advice in the Stoics' own words

What would the Stoics do?

Describe what you're facing. We find the passages from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus that speak to it — quoted verbatim, cited in full — and explain how they apply to you.

Describe the situation in a few sentences — a setback, a conflict, a decision, a loss.

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How it works

The Stoics’ own words

Every quote is rendered straight from a public-domain translation, with author, work, section, translator and year.

AI explains, never invents

AI picks which passages fit and explains them — always labelled, and checked so it can’t put words in a Stoic’s mouth.

Read it in context

Each passage links to the surrounding text, so you can see exactly what was said and why.

Common dilemmas

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The voices

  • Marcus Aurelius

    121–180 CE

    Roman emperor from 161 to 180. His private notebook, written largely on military campaign and never meant for publication, survives as the Meditations.

  • Seneca

    c. 4 BCE – 65 CE

    Lucius Annaeus Seneca: Roman statesman, dramatist and adviser to the emperor Nero. His essays and letters are the most practical body of Stoic writing to survive.

  • Epictetus

    c. 50 – c. 135 CE

    Born a slave, freed, and later exiled from Rome, he taught philosophy at Nicopolis. His student Arrian recorded his lectures as the Discourses and summarised them in the Enchiridion (Handbook).

Plus the founders of the Stoa as reported by Diogenes Laërtius, and Cicero on the Stoics. Browse the library or see our sources and licences.

Philosophy, not therapy. 2,575 passages · corpus version c07f11fd5582