Seneca the Younger Quotes
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He who blushes at riding in a rattletrap, will boast when he rides in style.
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Abstinence is easier than temperance.
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In my own time there have been inventions of this sort, transparent windows tubes for diffusing warmth equally through all parts of a building short-hand, which has been carried to such a perfection that a writer can keep pace with the most rapid speaker. But the inventing of such things is drudgery for the lowest slaves; philosophy lies deeper. It is not her office to teach men how to use their hands. The object of her lessons is to form the soul.
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This life is only a prelude to eternity.
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I persist on praising not the life I lead, but that which I ought to lead. I follow it at a mighty distance, crawling
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Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.
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Greed's worst point is its ingratitude.
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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
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Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob.
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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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An age builds up cities: an hour destroys them.
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Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence. -Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium
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Light cares cry out; the great ones still are dumb.
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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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The highest duty and the highest proof of wisdom - that deed and word should be in accord.
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We gain so much by quickness, and lose so much by slowness.
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Men practice war; beasts do not.
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I know that nothing comes to pass but what God appoints; our fate is decreed, and things do not happen by chance, but every man's portion of joy and sorrow is predetermined.
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What if a man save my life with a draught that was prepared to poison me? The providence of the issue does not at all discharge the obliquity of the intent. And the same reason holds good even in religion itself. It is not the incense, or the offering that is acceptable to God, but the purity and devotion of the worshipper.
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Not to feel one's misfortunes is not human, not to bear them is not manly.
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It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and - even more surprising - it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.
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Let ease and rest at times be given to the weary.
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There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly.
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A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.