Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Light griefs are plaintive , but great ones are dumb
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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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Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts
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Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with course and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: " Is this the condition that I feared?"
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A hungry people listens not to reason, not cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers.
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Make haste to live, and consider each day a life.
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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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All my life I have been seeking to climb out of the pit of my besetting sins and I cannot do it and I never will unless a hand is let down to draw me up.
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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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Economy is too late when you are at the bottom of your purse.
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Poverty with joy isn't poverty at all. The poor man is not one who has little, but one who hankers after more.
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Those whom fortune has never favored are more joyful than those whom she has deserted.
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A benefit is estimated according to the mind of the giver.
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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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It is the superfluous things for which men sweat.
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Let ease and rest at times be given to the weary.
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A dwarf can stand on a mountain, he's no taller.
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As gratitude is a necessary, and a glorious virtue, so also it is an obvious, a cheap, and an easy one; so obvious that wherever there is life there is a place for it; so cheap, that the covetous man may be gratified without expense, and so easy that the sluggard may be so likewise without labor.
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During difficult times and after mistakes and failures it is helpful to remember ... Oftentimes calamity turns to our advantage and great ruins make way for greater glories.
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Leave in concealment what has long been concealed.
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Lightning will wreck its displeasures not only upon pillars, trees, and sheep, but upon altars and temples, and let the sacrilegious go free.
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Nature does not turn out her work according to a single pattern; she prides herself upon her power of variation.
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The first step towards amendment is the recognition of error.
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It is sometimes pleasant even to act like a madman.