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What Would Stoics Do

How it works

Source first, AI second

Ask what a Stoic would do — and hear it from the Stoics themselves. You describe a real situation; we find the passages from the Stoics that speak to it, quote them exactly as they appear in the translation, and then — clearly labelled — explain how they might apply to you.

Corpus version c07f11fd5582 · built 16 October 2026

Passages
2,575
Works
20
Translations
8
Corpus version
c07f11fd5582

Every number here is read from the corpus itself. See every source and licence — one more text is on the way.

The promise

Fake Stoic quotes are everywhere. A philosophy site that invents one has failed at the only thing that matters, so four rules shape everything we build.

  1. Rule 1

    Quotes come from our database, not from the AI

    The AI picks which stored passages fit. The words you read are rendered directly from the passage record — the model never writes, retypes or paraphrases a quote.

  2. Rule 2

    Every quote can be checked

    Each one carries author, work, section, translator and year, and links to the surrounding text so you can see exactly what was said and why.

  3. Rule 3

    AI commentary is always labelled

    Anything written by AI sits in a separate, cooler-coloured panel marked “AI interpretation”. It never appears inside a quote block.

  4. Rule 4

    No match, no fake

    If nothing in the texts fits your situation well enough, we say so and show the closest principle, rather than stretching an irrelevant quote.

What you get back

Every answer has the same six parts. Two come straight from the texts; four are AI interpretation, and are labelled as such wherever they appear.

  1. Your situation, reframed

    AI interpretation

    One or two sentences on what your situation is really about in Stoic terms — usually, what is up to you and what isn’t.

  2. The dichotomy of control

    AI interpretation

    Two short lists: what is yours to act on, and what is not yours.

  3. The Stoics said

    From the text

    One to three passages, word for word from the stored translation, each with author, work, section, translator and year, and a “Read in context” link. Long passages are shortened at sentence breaks, with the full passage a click away.

  4. What this means here

    AI interpretation

    A plain-English explanation of how each passage applies to you, with notes where old wording gets in the way — Long’s “ruling faculty”, for instance, means your reasoning mind.

  5. One action for today

    AI interpretation

    A single, concrete step, often tied to a named Stoic practice such as the evening review or the view from above.

  6. A line to carry

    From the text

    The shortest, sharpest sentence from the passages above, cut from the stored text — never retyped — and available as a quote card.

What a quote looks like

This is a real passage, rendered from the corpus exactly as it would appear in an answer. Follow “Read in context” to see it in its place in the book.

Epictetus, Enchiridion 1

Of things some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion (ὑπόληψις), movement towards a thing (ὁρμή), desire, aversion (ἔκκλισις, turning from a thing); and in a word, whatever are our own acts: not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices (magisterial power), and in a word, whatever are not our own acts. And the things in our power are by nature free, not subject to restraint nor hindrance: but the things not in our power are weak, slavish, subject to restraint, in the power of others. …
— Epictetus, Enchiridion 1 · tr. George Long (1877)Read in context →

What happens when you ask

Six steps, in this order. Nothing you type is stored along the way.

  1. Safety check. Before anything else, we look for signs that you might be in danger. If we find them, we skip the philosophy and show you people who can help right now. Crisis support is never behind the daily limit — it is always here.
  2. Understanding. A fast AI model reads your situation and notes its themes, what is and isn’t in your control, and a handful of search phrases — some in modern English and some in the 19th-century language of the translations, so that “my boss humiliated me” can still find a line about being despised.
  3. Search over 2,575 passages. We search the exact wording of every passage, together with plain-English notes and topic tags we have prepared for each one, and take the best 30 candidates. Passages that discuss suicide are never used here.
  4. Re-ranking. A second AI pass scores each candidate for how well it fits your situation, and we keep up to five, drawn from more than one Stoic where we can. If none clears the bar, we tell you so plainly and offer the closest principle instead.
  5. Composition. A more capable model writes the labelled sections. It refers to passages by their ID and points to sentences by position; it never sends back quote text of its own.
  6. Quote verification. Before you see anything, we check that every passage exists and was among the candidates, that every highlighted line is found word for word in the stored text, and that no AI section puts words in a Stoic’s mouth (no “Seneca said…” unless the words are on the page). If a check fails we try once more; if it fails again, you get the passages without the commentary.

The AI models are Anthropic’s Claude models. If they are unavailable, the site still works: you get the passages that matched your situation, with short plain-English notes, and no AI commentary. You can ask 3 questions a day for free. Read what happens to your data.

What it can’t do

We would rather you trust it for the right reasons.

  • The translations are old. To quote freely, we use translations that are out of copyright — mostly from the 1800s and early 1900s. Their English can be stiff or archaic. We add translation notes, but it is worth reading a passage in context before leaning on it.
  • These are translations, not the originals. The words are a translator’s English rendering of Greek or Latin. Different translators make different choices, and we name the translator on every quote.
  • The AI can misread your situation. The quotes are real, but the commentary is an interpretation. It can miss context, misjudge what matters to you, or apply a passage too neatly. You know your life; it doesn’t.
  • The Stoics were people of their time. Some passages assume slavery, or say things about women and others that we would reject today. We quote the texts as they were written; quoting a passage is not endorsing every line of it.
  • Philosophy, not therapy. This is a place to think, not a substitute for medical, psychological, legal or financial advice. If you are struggling, please talk to someone.

Who it’s for

  • Anyone in a hard moment

    A setback at work, a difficult colleague, a decision you can’t settle. Perspective, and one practical next step, fast.

  • The Stoicism-curious

    You’ve read some Marcus Aurelius or follow Stoic accounts, and want to go past the one-liners to the passage that fits your life.

  • Serious practitioners

    You journal and read the letters. Here is the whole corpus, searchable by situation, with exact references you can cite.

  • People who share ideas

    Quote cards that are accurate and attributable — every one cut from the stored text, with its citation attached.

It isn’t for emergencies, and it isn’t a chatbot: off-topic requests are gently pointed back to the question of how to live.

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