Seneca the Younger Quotes
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It is safer to offend certain men than it is to oblige them; for as proof that they owe nothing they seek recourse in hatred.
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To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.
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As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit
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Death is a punishment to some, to others a gift and to many a favour.
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Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.
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That which achieves its effect by accident is not art.
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To expel hunger and thirst there is no necessity of sitting in a palace and submitting to the supercilious brow and contumelious favour of the rich and great there is no necessity of sailing upon the deep or of following the camp What nature wants is every where to be found and attainable without much difficulty whereas require the sweat of the brow for these we are obliged to dress anew j compelled to grow old in the field and driven to foreign mores A sufficiency is always at hand
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Solitude and company may be allowed to take their turns: the one creates in us the love of mankind, the other that of ourselves; solitude relieves us when we are sick of company, and conversation when we are weary of being alone, so that the one cures the other. There is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to use his time
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He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.
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Long is the road to learning by precepts, but short and successful by examples.
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He is ungrateful who denies that he has received a kindness which has been bestowed upon him; he is ungrateful who conceals it; he is ungrateful who makes no return for it; most ungrateful of all is he who forgets it.
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In whatever direction you turn, you will see God coming to meet you; nothing is void of him, he himself fills all his work.
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No action will be considered blameless, unless the will was so, for by the will the act was dictated.
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Concealed anger is to be feared; but hatred openly manifested destroys its chance of revenge.
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To the believers it is true. To the wise it is false. To the leaders it is useful.
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Some laws, though unwritten, are more firmly established than all written laws.
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No work is of such merit as to instruct from a mere cursory perusal.
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It is well to be born either a king or a fool.
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It is man's duty to live in conformity with the divine will, and this means, firstly, bringing his life into line with 'nature's laws', and secondly, resigning himself completely and uncomplainingly to whatever fate may send him. Only by living thus, and not setting too high a value on things which can at any moment be taken away from him, can he discover that true, unshakeable peace and contentment to which ambition, luxury and above all avarice are among the greatest obstacles.
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During difficult times and after mistakes and failures it is helpful to remember ... Oftentimes calamity turns to our advantage and great ruins make way for greater glories.
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For men in a state of freedom had thatch for their shelter, while slavery dwells beneath marble and gold.
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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.
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Precepts are the rules by which we ought to square our lives. When they are contracted into sentences, they strike the affections; whereas admonition is only blowing of the coal.
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Make haste to live, and consider each day a life.