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What Would Stoics Do

Sources & licences

Where every word comes from

Every quotation on this site is rendered word for word from one of the translations below. Each has a licence record: who wrote it, who translated it and when they lived, which edition, where our digital copy came from and the exact version we built from. A text without a complete record is refused by our build, and never quoted.

Corpus version c07f11fd5582 · built 16 October 2026 · how answers are made

Passages
2,575
Works
20
Translations
8
On the way
1

The texts we quote

Grouped by translation. Passage counts and commits are read from the corpus manifest, so they always match what the site is quoting from.

  • Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

    The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, translated by George Long (1862)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    George Long (1800–1879)Dates: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    First published
    1862
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1879: public domain in the UK (life+70) and the US (published 1862).
    Digitisation source
    Standard Ebooksstandardebooks.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC0 1.0 (Standard Ebooks dedicates its own contributions to the public domain)About CC0
    Pinned version
    3a47d37d9f1dgithub.com/standardebooks/marcus-aurelius_meditations_george-long
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Standard Ebooks editions are proofread against page scans and apply the Standard Ebooks style manual (e.g. modernised hyphenation and some spelling, typographic quotes). Wording is otherwise the translator's. Section numbers are not printed in this edition; they are restored by aligning each paragraph to the numbered Greek text (Perseus, tlg0562.tlg001.perseus-grc2) — see scripts/corpus/alignments/meditations-long.json.
    Attribution
    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0).

    In the library · 483 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Seneca, Dialogues

    L. Annaeus Seneca: Minor Dialogues, together with the dialogue On Clemency (1889) and On Benefits (1887), translated by Aubrey Stewart (Bohn's Classical Library)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    Aubrey Stewart (1844–1918)Dates: Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses
    First published
    1889
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1918: public domain in the UK (life+70) and the US (published 1887–1889).
    Digitisation source
    Standard Ebooksstandardebooks.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC0 1.0 (Standard Ebooks dedicates its own contributions to the public domain)About CC0
    Pinned version
    b950b7cb47d8github.com/standardebooks/seneca_dialogues_aubrey-stewart
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Standard Ebooks editions are proofread against page scans and apply the Standard Ebooks style manual (e.g. modernised hyphenation and some spelling, typographic quotes). Wording is otherwise the translator's.
    Attribution
    Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0).

    In the library · 594 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Epictetus, Discourses

    The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments, translated by George Long (1877)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    George Long (1800–1879)Dates: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    First published
    1877
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1879: public domain in the UK and the US.
    Digitisation source
    Standard Ebooksstandardebooks.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC0 1.0 (Standard Ebooks dedicates its own contributions to the public domain)About CC0
    Pinned version
    a50e918ff19cgithub.com/standardebooks/epictetus_discourses_george-long
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Standard Ebooks editions are proofread against page scans and apply the Standard Ebooks style manual (e.g. modernised hyphenation and some spelling, typographic quotes). Wording is otherwise the translator's.
    Attribution
    Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0).

    In the library · 390 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Epictetus, Enchiridion and Fragments

    The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments, translated by George Long (1877)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    George Long (1800–1879)Dates: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    First published
    1877
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1879: public domain in the UK and the US.
    Digitisation source
    Standard Ebooksstandardebooks.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC0 1.0 (Standard Ebooks dedicates its own contributions to the public domain)About CC0
    Pinned version
    8c154d40a6f8github.com/standardebooks/epictetus_short-works_george-long
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Standard Ebooks editions are proofread against page scans and apply the Standard Ebooks style manual (e.g. modernised hyphenation and some spelling, typographic quotes). Wording is otherwise the translator's.
    Attribution
    Epictetus, Enchiridion and Fragments, tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0).

    In the library · 192 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII

    Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, translated by R. D. Hicks (Loeb Classical Library, 1925)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    R. D. Hicks (1850–1929)Dates: Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses
    First published
    1925
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1929: public domain in the UK (life+70, since 2000). US: first published 1925 (public domain); Loeb vol. II (Book VII) was revised and reprinted in 1931 and Perseus follows a later printing, so any 1931 revisions enter the US public domain on 1 Jan 2027 (low risk; see docs/research/licence-facts.md).
    Digitisation source
    Perseus Digital Libraryscaife.perseus.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library TEI markup). Our extracted text is attributed to Perseus and our corpus files derived from it are shared under the same licence.Attribution and ShareAlike notice
    Pinned version
    0189b9c8d8d1github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Attribution
    Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII, tr. R. D. Hicks (Loeb, 1925). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    In the library · 204 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Cicero, Tusculan Disputations

    Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, translated by C. D. Yonge (1853)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    C. D. Yonge (1812–1891)Dates: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
    First published
    1853
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1891: public domain in the UK and the US.
    Digitisation source
    Standard Ebooksstandardebooks.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC0 1.0 (Standard Ebooks dedicates its own contributions to the public domain)About CC0
    Pinned version
    caa2aa9ecd47github.com/standardebooks/cicero_tusculan-disputations_c-d-yonge
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Standard Ebooks editions are proofread against page scans and apply the Standard Ebooks style manual (e.g. modernised hyphenation and some spelling, typographic quotes). Wording is otherwise the translator's.Cicero was not a Stoic; he is always labelled “Cicero (on the Stoics)” (PRD §7.2a).
    Attribution
    Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0).

    In the library · 246 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • Cicero, On Duties

    Cicero, De Officiis, translated by Walter Miller (Loeb Classical Library, 1913)

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Translator
    Walter Miller (1864–1949)Dates: Who Was Who in America
    First published
    1913
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Translator died 1949: public domain in the UK (life+70, since 2020) and the US (published 1913).
    Digitisation source
    Perseus Digital Libraryscaife.perseus.org
    Digitisation licence
    CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library TEI markup). Our extracted text is attributed to Perseus and our corpus files derived from it are shared under the same licence.Attribution and ShareAlike notice
    Pinned version
    128a05afa9ccgithub.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    Cicero was not a Stoic; he is always labelled “Cicero (on the Stoics)” (PRD §7.2a).
    Attribution
    Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    In the library · 371 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

  • St. George Stock, Stoicism

    St. George Stock, Stoicism (London: Constable, 1908, Philosophies Ancient and Modern), as reprinted by Haldeman-Julius as “A Guide to Stoicism” (Ten Cent Pocket Series No. 347, 1920s); Project Gutenberg #7514

    Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

    Author
    St. George Stock — written in English
    First published
    1908
    Licence tier
    Tier A — Public domain (UK-safe). Original English work published 1908 (reprint pre-1931). Author St. George William Joseph Stock, 13 Mar 1850 – 9 Mar 1922 (Library of Congress authority n80153144; CCEL gives 1921): public domain in the UK since 1993 and in the US.
    Digitisation source
    Project Gutenberg (via GITenberg)gutenberg.org
    Digitisation licence
    Public domain (Project Gutenberg; trademark boilerplate stripped)
    Pinned version
    080221a32953github.com/GITenberg/A-Guide-to-Stoicism_7514
    How we show it
    In full in the library. No bulk downloads.
    Editorial notes
    A modern (1908) introduction, not a primary text. Quotations inside it are Stock's own renderings.
    Attribution
    St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514.

    In the library · 95 passages

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

On the way

These texts are registered and licence-checked but not in the corpus yet. Until a text has been built and checked against its source, none of its words appear on the site.

  • Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius

    Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, translated by Richard M. Gummere (Loeb Classical Library, 1917–1925)

    Tier BPublic domain in the US only

    Not in the corpus yet. Waiting to be fetched: we still need to download it from en.wikisource.org and check every passage against the source.

    Translator
    Richard M. Gummere (1883–1969)Dates: Rutgers Database of Classical Scholars
    First published
    1917
    Licence tier
    Tier B — Public domain in the US only. Public domain in the US (published before 1931). Gummere died 1969, so under the UK's life+70 rule the translation may be protected until the end of 2039. Included at launch by decision of 16 Oct 2026 (PRD §7.3) pending a written legal opinion.
    Digitisation source
    Wikisourceen.wikisource.org
    Digitisation licence
    Public domain in the US (Wikisource transcription)
    Pinned version
    Pinned when it is first built
    How we show it
    Short excerpts only (up to 4 passages either side), never the whole text. No bulk downloads.May be withheld in the UK
    Editorial notes
    Check the transcription follows the 1917–1925 printings (vol. 3, 1925), not the 1943 revision of vol. 3. Swap-ready: passages are anchored by Letter.Paragraph so the letters can be re-pointed to another translation (e.g. Thomas Morell, 1786) without changing citation anchors.
    Attribution
    Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, tr. Richard M. Gummere (Loeb Classical Library, 1917–1925). Text: Wikisource.

    Licence record reviewed 16 October 2026.

Not yet included: Musonius Rufus. The only complete English translation (Cora E. Lutz, 1947) has an unresolved copyright position in both the UK and the US, so we are not using it until we have taken advice.

How we decide what we can use

“Free to read online” is not the same as “free to quote in a product”. Every text is placed in one of six tiers before anything is built from it.

Tier APublic domain (UK-safe)

The translator (or author) died more than 70 years ago, so the text is free to use in the UK and the US.

How we use it: Quoted in full, with complete citations.

8 translations in the corpus today.

Tier BPublic domain in the US only

Published in the US before 1931, so it is public domain there, but the translator died less than 70 years ago, so it may still be in copyright in the UK.

How we use it: Held for legal review. Shown only in short excerpts with full attribution, never as a full-text download, and it can be withheld in the UK at short notice.

None in the corpus today.

Tier COpen licence allowing commercial use

Released by its author under a licence such as CC BY or CC BY-SA.

How we use it: Quoted with the attribution the licence requires, following its terms.

None in the corpus today.

Tier DNon-commercial or no-derivatives licence

Shared under a licence such as CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-ND.

How we use it: Not used without the author’s written permission.

None in the corpus today.

Tier ENo stated licence

Freely available online (a free PDF, say), but with no licence that permits reuse.

How we use it: Not used without the author’s written permission.

None in the corpus today.

Tier FPartner content

Written by a modern author who has joined our Contributor Programme.

How we use it: Used on the terms of the contributor agreement, with prominent credit.

None in the corpus today.

Why some texts are restricted

Copyright in the UK lasts until 70 years after the end of the year in which the author — for a translation, the translator — died. In the US, anything published before 1931 is in the public domain. A few of the best English translations fall between the two: free to use in the US, but possibly still protected in the UK.

We treat those texts (tier B) with extra care while we take legal advice. We show them only as short excerpts around the passage you asked about, never as a whole book or a download; we credit the translator and edition in full on every quote; and we can stop showing them in particular countries at short notice. If a text is withheld where you are, you will see a note in its place.

Attribution and ShareAlike

Some of our digital texts are derived from editions released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). The licence asks us to credit the source, say what we changed and share our adaptation on the same terms:

  • Lives of the Stoics (Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VII), tr. R. D. Hicks (1925): text derived from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (version 0189b9c8d8d1).
  • On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (1913): text derived from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (version 128a05afa9cc).

What we changed: we extracted the English text from the source markup, removed notes and markup, and divided it into numbered passages for citation. We did not alter the wording. The translations themselves are in the public domain; the licence covers the digital editions.

ShareAlike: the passage files we derived from these editions (in our repository’s corpus/works/ folder) are shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. If you reuse them, credit the original source and share your adaptation under the same terms.

For modern writers: the Contributor Programme

Modern Stoic writing can be wonderfully relatable — but “freely shared” is not the same as “licensed for a product like this”. So we don’t use modern texts unless they are openly licensed for commercial use (tier C) or their author has joined our Contributor Programme (tier F).

If you write, blog or podcast about Stoicism, you can opt in under a simple agreement. In return: prominent credit and a link back on every answer that uses your work, an author page, and statistics on how often your passages are shown. We are still working out the details, including any revenue share.

Get in touch or write to stoic@hacked.ventures

Found a mistake in a citation, a date or a licence record? Please tell us at stoic@hacked.ventures.