Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Abstinence is easier than temperance.
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Chance makes a plaything of a man's life.
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He who blushes at riding in a rattletrap, will boast when he rides in style.
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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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A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.
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The greatest chastisement that a man may receive who hath outraged another, is to have done the outrage; and there is no man who is so rudely punished as he that is subject to the whip of his own repentance.
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What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man's safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.
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Greatness stands upon a precipice, and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces.
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We gain so much by quickness, and lose so much by slowness.
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Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself.
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To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.
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Men practice war; beasts do not.
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It's the admirer and the watcher who provoke us to all the inanities we commit.
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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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No one loves his country for its size or eminence, but because it's his own.
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When one has lost a friend one's eyes should be neither dry nor streaming. Tears, yes, there should be, but not lamentation.
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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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When God has once begun to throw down the prosperous, He overthrows them altogether: such is the end of the mighty.
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This life is only a prelude to eternity.
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A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment.
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You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.
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Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.
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The mind is a matter over every kind of fortune; itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and misery.