Seneca the Younger Quotes

If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich.

Nature does not reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine we are initiated in her mysteries: we are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.

Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of.

Who can hope for nothing, should despair for nothing.

No one loves his country for its size or eminence, but because it's his own.

Tis a human trait to hate one you have wronged

To the stars through difficulties.

The acquisition of riches has been to many not an end to their miseries, but a change in them: The fault is not in the riches, but the disposition.

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

The articulate, trained voice is more distracting than mere noise.

God never repents of what He has first resolved upon.

He that does good to another does good also to himself, not only in the consequence but in the very act. For the consciousness of well-doing is in itself ample reward.

The arts are the servant; wisdom its master.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.

Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.

To be feared is to fear. No one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.

Success gives the character of honesty to some classes of wickedness.

Of all the felicities, the most charming is that of a firm and gentle friendship. It sweetens all our cares, dispels our sorrows, and counsels us in all extremities. Nay, if there were no other comfort in it than the pare exercise of so generous a virtue, even for that single reason a man would not be without it; it is a sovereign antidote against all calamities - even against the fear of death itself.

We are all sinful. Therefore whatever we blame in another we shall find in our own bosoms.

We suffer more in imagination than in reality.

No man finds it difficult to return to nature except the man who has deserted nature.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.

Crime requires further crime to conceal it.

It is one thing to remember, another to know. To remember is to safeguard something entrusted to the memory. But to know is to make each thing one's own, not depend on the text and always to look back to the teacher. "Zeno said this, Cleanthes said this." Let there be space between you and the book.

Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: " Is this the condition that I feared?"

We are at best but stewards of what we falsely call our own; yet avarice is so insatiable that it is not in the power of liberality to content it.

If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him. Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.

No possession is gratifying without a companion.

The state of that man's mind who feels too intense an interest as to future events, must be most deplorable.

Simple is the language of truth.

What is required is not a lot words, but effectual ones.

What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it.

Men learn while they teach.

Nothing is so false as human life, nothing so treacherous. God knows no one would have accepted it as a gift, if it had not been given without our knowledge.

Speech is the index of the mind.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

They who have light in themselves will not revolve as satellites.

There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly.

Every reign must submit to a greater reign.

A disease is farther on the road to being cured when it breaks forth from concealment and manifests its power.

The language of truth is unvarnished enough.

No one can keep a mask on long.

We learn not for life but for the debating-room.

It is never too late to turn from the errors of our ways: He who repents of his sins is almost innocent.

Teach the art of living well.

Those that are a friend to themselves are sure to be a friend to all.

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.