Seneca the Younger Quotes

The chief bond of the soldier is his oath of allegiance and love for the flag.

No one's so old that he mayn't with decency hope for one more day.

We must take care to live not merely a long life, but a full one; for living a long life requires only good fortune, but living a full life requires character. Long is the life that is fully lived; it is fulfilled only when the mind supplies its own good qualities and empowers itself from within.

We most often go astray on a well trodden and much frequented road.

He is greedy of life who is not willing to die when the world is perishing around him.

It is a proof of nobility of mind to despise injuries.

Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power.

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.

The more violent the storm the sooner it is over.

To things which you bear with impatience you should accustom yourself, and, by habit you will bear them well.

Pain, 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!

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.

Tranqility is a certain quality of mind, which no condition or fortune can either exalt or depress.

A thousand approaches lie open to death.

Dissembling profiteth nothing; a feigned countenance, and slightly forged externally, deceiveth but very few.

There is nothing more miserable and foolish than anticipation.

He that by harshness of nature rules his family with an iron hand is as truly a tyrant as he who misgoverns a nation.

Truths open to everyone, and the claims aren't all staked yet.

He is most powerful who governs himself.

You cannot, I repeat, successfully acquire it and preserve your modesty at the same time.

When some state or other offered Alexander a part of its territory and half of all its property he told them that 'he hadn't come to Asia with the intention of accepting whatever they cared to give him, but of letting them keep whatever he chose to leave them.' Philosophy, likewise, tells all other occupations: 'It's not my intention to accept whatever time is leftover from you; you shall have, instead, what I reject.' Give your whole mind to her.

The pleasures of the palate deal with us like Egyptian thieves who strangle those whom they embrace.

As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves

To make a commencement requires a mental effort.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

True love hates and will not bear delay.

It is a world of mischief that may be done by a single example of avarice or luxury. One voluptuous palate makes many more.

Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing.

There has not been any great talent without an element of madness. -Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit

Light cares cry out; the great ones still are dumb.

The path of increase is slow, but the road to ruin is rapid.

Nobody will keep the thing he hears to himself, and nobody will repeat just what he hears and no more.

The great thing is to know when to speak and when to keep quiet.

Let us ask what is best - not what is customary. Let us love temperance - let us be just - let us refrain from bloodshed.

As the world leads we follow.

To err is human. To repeat error is of the Devil.

Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.

True wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model.

We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.

Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel...You are called in to help the unhappy.

I 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.

We are sure to get the better of fortune if we do but grapple with her.

Greed's worst point is its ingratitude.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

The declaration of love may come sooner than expected. Take time before you reciprocate as this may simply be a statement of what they expect from you.

Learn how to feel joy.