Seneca the Younger Quotes

Such is the blindness, nay the insanity of mankind, that some men are driven to death by the fear of it.

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.

Never to wrong others takes one a long way towards peace of mind.

I am ashamed of my master and not of my servitude.

Successful crime is dignified with the name of virtue; the good become the slaves of the wicked; might makes right; fear silences the power of the law.

The origin of all mankind was the same; it is only a clear and good conscience that makes a man noble, for that is derived from heaven itself.

There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.

Whereas a prolonged life is not necessarily better, a prolonged death is necessarily worse.

What's the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then.

Our fears are always more numerous than our dangers.

There is no genius free from some tincture of madness

Many person might have achieved wisdom had they not supposed that they already possessed it.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

When God has once begun to throw down the prosperous, He overthrows them altogether: such is the end of the mighty.

Vice is contagious, and there is no trusting the sound and the sick together.

The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and patient courage in adversity.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

What once were vices are manners now.

Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.

Epicurus says that you should rather have regard to the company with whom you eat and drink, than to what you eat and drink.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

Light griefs do speak, while sorrow's tongue is bound.

The true felicity of life is to be free from anxieties and pertubations; to understand and do our duties to God and man, and to enjoy the present without any serious dependence on the future.

Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.

Man's ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy-that he live in accordance with his own nature.

We gain so much by quickness, and lose so much by slowness.

It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.

As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.

My joy in learning is partly that it enables me to teach.

Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one.

Some pretend want of power to make a competent return; and you shall find in others a kind of graceless modesty, that makes a man ashamed of requiting an obligation, because it is a confession that he has received one.

If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

Extreme remedies are never the first to be resorted to.

When modesty has once perished, it will never revive.

Men love their vices and hate them at the same time.

Death is a punishment to some, to others a gift and to many a favour.

Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things-eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies-since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.

Calamity is virtue's opportunity.

He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.

He who tenders doubtful safety to those in trouble refuses it.

Slavery holds few men fast; the greater number hold fast their slavery.

Good sides to adversity are best admired at a distance.

You will die not because you're ill, but because you're alive.

It's unknown the place and uncertain the time where death awaits you; thus you must expect death to find you, every time, at every place.

Fortune dreads the brave, and is only terrible to the coward.

God has given some gifts to the whole human race, from which no one is excluded.

This is the law of benefits between men; the one ought to forget at once what was given, and the other ought never to forget what he has received.