Seneca the Younger Quotes
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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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A benefit is estimated according to the mind of the giver.
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An unpopular rule is never long maintained.
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How much longer are you going to be a pupil? From now on do some teaching as well.
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As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.
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Humanity is fortunate, because no man is unhappy except by his own fault.
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No one can lead a happy life, or even one that is bearable, without the pursuit of wisdom, and that the perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life, although even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable. Yet this conviction, clear as it is, needs to be strengthened and given deeper roots through daily reflection; making noble resolutions is not a important as keeping the resolutions you have made already.
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On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.
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I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them.
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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 whole discord of this world consists in discords.
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The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.
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The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible resolution.
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The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena or essentially Too late.
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Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
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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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Where reason fails, time oft has worked a cure.
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Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?
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You cannot, I repeat, successfully acquire it and preserve your modesty at the same time.
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Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all. . . . .
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Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.
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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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Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself.
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No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor; though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.