The things that are essential are acquired with little bother; it is the luxuries that call for toil and effort.
Seneca the YoungerLet us not seek our disease out of ourselves; 'tis in us, and planted in our bowels; and the mere fact that we do not perceive ourselves to be sick, renders us more hard to be cured.
Seneca the YoungerPain, scorned by yonder gout-ridden wretch, endured by yonder dyspeptic in the midst of his dainties, borne bravely by the girl in travail. Slight thou art, if I can bear thee, short thou art if I cannot bear thee!
Seneca the YoungerHe that lays down precepts for the governing of our lives, and moderating our passions, obliges humanity not only in the present, but in all future generations.
Seneca the YoungerI can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of maids labor so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.
Seneca the Younger