Seneca the Younger Quotes
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It is only the surprise and newness of the thing which makes that misfortune terrible which by premeditation might be made easy to us. For that which some people make light by sufferance, others do by foresight.
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We are all sinful. Therefore whatever we blame in another we shall find in our own bosoms.
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Expediency often silences justice.
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Self-denial is the best riches.
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No man finds it difficult to return to nature except the man who has deserted nature.
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We learn not for life but for the debating-room.
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The body is not a permanent dwelling, but a sort of inn which is to be left behind when one perceives that one is a burden to the host.
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Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures.
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That which we are not permitted to have we delight in; that which we can have is disregarded.
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A good mind is a lord of a kingdom.
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Money does all things for reward. Some are pious and honest as long as they thrive upon it, but if the devil himself gives better wages, they soon change their party.
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The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company
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Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.
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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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Fire proves gold, adversity proves men.
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If true, the Pythagorean principles as to abstain from flesh, foster innocence; if ill-founded they at least teach us frugality, and what loss have you in losing your cruelty? It merely deprives you of the food of lions and vultures...let us ask what is best - not what is customary. Let us love temperance - let us be just - let us refrain from bloodshed.
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So live with an inferior as you would wish a superior to live with you.
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A man can refrain from wanting what he has not and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.
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The fates lead the willing, and drag the unwilling.
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Study rather to fill your mind than your coffers; knowing that gold and silver were originally mingled with dirt, until avarice or ambition parted them.
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Where reason fails, time oft has worked a cure.
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We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?
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If wisdom were offered me with this restriction, that I should keep it close and not communicate it, I would refuse the gift.
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It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.