Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Not he who has little, but he whose wishes more, is poor.
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It is medicine, not scenery, for which a sick man must go searching.
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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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Live among others as if God beheld you; speak to God as if others were listening.
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The part of life which we really live is short.
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Extreme remedies are never the first to be resorted to.
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What's the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then.
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He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.
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The great thing is to know when to speak and when to keep quiet.
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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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He that lays down precepts for the governing of our lives, and moderating our passions, obliges humanity not only in the present, but in all future generations.
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Whatsoever has exceeded its proper limit is in an unstable position.
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What should a wise person do when given a blow? Same as Cato when he was attacked; not fire up or revenge the insult., or even return the blow, but simply ignore it.
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Concealed anger is to be feared; but hatred openly manifested destroys its chance of revenge.
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Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after rest. Just as you must not force fertile farmland, as uninterrupted productivity will soon exhaust it, so constant effort will sap our mental vigour, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers. Unremitting effort leads to a kind of mental dullness and lethargy.
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A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be well-ordered, serious and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is contaminated.
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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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The state of that man's mind who feels too intense an interest as to future events, must be most deplorable.
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We gain so much by quickness, and lose so much by slowness.
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Dangerous is wrath concealed. Hatred proclaimed doth lose its chance of wreaking vengeance.
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The mind does not easily unlearn what it has been long in learning.
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If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.
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I am telling you to be a slow-speaking person.
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He that visits the sick in hopes of a legacy, but is never so friendly in all other cases, I look upon him as being no better than a raven that watches a weak sheep only to peck out its eyes.