Only a great man, believe me, and one whose excellence rises far above human failings, will not allow anything to be stolen from his own span of time, and his life is very long precisely because he has devoted to himself entirely any time that became available. None of it lay uncultivated and idle, none was under another man's control, for guarding it most jealously, he found nothing worth exchanging for his own precious time.
Seneca the YoungerTo strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.
Seneca the YoungerThe greatest chastisement that a man may receive who hath outraged another, is to have done the outrage; and there is no man who is so rudely punished as he that is subject to the whip of his own repentance.
Seneca the YoungerSuccess is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.
Seneca the YoungerTo be feared is to fear. No one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.
Seneca the YoungerWe all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.
Seneca the Younger