Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Anger is like a ruin, which, in falling upon its victim, breaks itself to pieces.
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Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.
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The world itself is too small for the covetous.
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There is as much greatness of mind in the owning of a good turn as in the doing of it; and we must no more force a requital out of season than be wanting in it.
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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 first step towards amendment is the recognition of error.
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Light griefs are plaintive , but great ones are dumb
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Whatever we give to the wretched, we lend to fortune.
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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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Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of.
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Reason wishes that the judgement it gives be just; anger wishes that the judgement it has given seem to be just.
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No crime has been without a precedent.
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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.
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We sought therefore to amend our will, and not to suffer it through despite to languish long time in error.
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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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Virtue is shut out from no one; she is open to all, accepts all, invites all, gentlemen, freedmen, slaves, kings, and exiles; she selects neither house nor fortune; she is satisfied with a human being without adjuncts.
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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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This is the difference between us Romans and the Etruscans: We believe that lightning is caused by clouds colliding, whereas they believe that clouds collide in order to create lightning. Since they attribute everything to gods, they are led to believe not that events have a meaning because they have happened, but that they happen in order to express a meaning.
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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.
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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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Let ease and rest at times be given to the weary.
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The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena or essentially Too late.
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A great, a good, and a right mind is a kind of divinity lodged in flesh, and may be the blessing of a slave as well as of a prince: it came from heaven, and to heaven it must return; and it is a kind of heavenly felicity, which a pure and virtuous mind enjoys, in some degree, even upon earth.
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The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.