Quotes the Stoics never said
When we checked every quote in Sagius against its source in October 2026, these lines, credited to the Stoics, turned out to be someone else's words, a loose rewrite, or no one's at all. We removed them from the app. Here is where each one really comes from.
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Credited to Marcus Aurelius · No source found
It is in no known translation of the Meditations, and Wikiquote lists it as misattributed. It may paraphrase Meditations IV.3, but these words are not his.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org · gutenberg.org
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
Credited to Marcus Aurelius · No source found
The sentence is in no known translation of the Meditations. Wikiquote lists it as disputed: it appears, credited to Marcus Aurelius, in Dan Millman's self-help book The Life You Were Born to Live (1995).
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org · gutenberg.org
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”
Credited to Epictetus · Someone else said it
Really: Charles de Saint-Évremond, An Essay on the Vindication of Epicurus and his Doctrine, English edition in Epicurus's Morals (1712)
The real wording the greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. ... Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
In this English wording the two sentences first appear apart, in an essay about Epicurus by Saint-Évremond. They are also often credited to Epicurus himself.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org
“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
Credited to Epictetus · A loose rewrite
Rewritten from: Enchiridion 46 (tr. W. A. Oldfather)
The real wording On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, and do not, for the most part, talk among laymen about your philosophic principles, but do what follows from your principles.
Probably a short modern summary of the start of Enchiridion 46, credited to Epictetus since around 2016. The thought is his; these six words are not.
Checked against: en.wikisource.org · en.wikiquote.org
“Associate with people who will make you better, not those who will make you popular.”
Credited to Seneca · A loose rewrite
Rewritten from: Letters to Lucilius 7.8 (tr. R. M. Gummere)
The real wording Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve.
The first half is Seneca, loosely. The second half is not in this sentence; it compresses the letter's wider theme of avoiding the crowd and its applause. Seneca goes on to say the process is mutual, because people learn while they teach.
Checked against: en.wikisource.org
“We are not born once and for all on the day our mother gives birth to us, but life obliges us to give birth to ourselves throughout our life.”
Credited to Zeno of Citium · Someone else said it
Really: Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), ch. IV (tr. Edith Grossman)
The real wording He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.
A line from a twentieth-century novel, not from a Greek philosopher. In the book it is a character's conviction, not a maxim.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org
“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?”
Credited to Zeno of Citium · Someone else said it
Really: Jean Cocteau, on his election to the Académie française (1955)
The real wording We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?
Wikiquote records it as said by the French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau on his election to the Académie française.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org
“Nature does nothing in vain.”
Credited to Zeno of Citium · Someone else said it
Really: Aristotle, Generation of Animals II.5
The real wording Nature makes nothing in vain.
Aristotle states it as a principle of nature in Generation of Animals. It belongs to Aristotle, not to the Stoa.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org
“Life which is not examined is not worth living.”
Credited to Zeno of Citium · Someone else said it
Really: Socrates, Plato, Apology 38a (tr. Benjamin Jowett)
The real wording the unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates says it at his trial, in Plato's account. It is one of the best-known sentences in philosophy.
Checked against: gutenberg.org · en.wikipedia.org
“The nature of an obstacle is to be overcome. What's in the way becomes the way.”
Credited to Zeno of Citium · Someone else said it
Really: Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.20 (tr. Gregory Hays)
The real wording What stands in the way becomes the way.
The second sentence is close to Marcus Aurelius in Gregory Hays's modern translation, not Zeno. The first sentence is not in that passage.
Checked against: en.wikiquote.org
This page was written by AI from the sources linked under each line. No human edited it.