Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Leave in concealment what has long been concealed.
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If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich.
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Something that can never be learnt too thoroughly can never be said too often.
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You should rather suppose that those are involved in worthwhile duties who wish to have daily as their closest friends Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus and all the other high priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus. None of these will be too busy to see you, none of these will not send his visitor away happier and more devoted to himself, none of these will allow anyone to depart empty-handed. They are at home to all mortals by night and by day.
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Whatever we owe, it is our part to find where to pay it, and to do it without asking, too; for whether the creditor be good or bad, the debt is still the same.
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Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself.
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Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts
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Death is a punishment to some, to others a gift and to many a favour.
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It is equally a fault to believe all men or to believe none.
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There is no fair wind for one who knows not whither he is bound.
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He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.
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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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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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The voice of flattery affects us after it has ceased, just as after a concert men find some agreeable air ringing in their ears to the exclusion of all serious business.
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Live among others as if God beheld you; speak to God as if others were listening.
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It is a common thing to screw up justice to the pitch of an injury. A man may be over-righteous, and why not over-grateful, too? There is a mischievous excess that borders so close upon ingratitude that it is no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other; but, in regard that there is good-will in the bottom of it, however distempered; for it is effectually but kindness out of the wits.
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A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his position, which after all is only something we wear like clothing.
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Those whom fortune has never favored are more joyful than those whom she has deserted.
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Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?
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Whatsoever has exceeded its proper limit is in an unstable position.
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There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.
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The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
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The customs of that most criminal nation (Israel) have gained such strength that they have now been received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors.
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We are so vain as to set the highest value upon those things to which nature has assigned the lowest place. What can be more coarse and rude in the mind than the precious metals, or more slavish and dirty than the people that dig and work them? And yet they defile our minds more than our bodies, and make the possessor fouler than the artificer of them. Rich men, in fine, are only the greater slaves.