Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Fire proves gold, adversity proves men.
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Who needs forgiveness, should the same extend with readiness.
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On entering a temple we assume all signs of reverence. How much more reverent then should we be before the heavenly bodies, the stars, the very nature of God!
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The road by precepts is tedious, by example, short and efficacious.
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Nature does not reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine we are initiated in her mysteries: we are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.
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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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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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Nature does not turn out her work according to a single pattern; she prides herself upon her power of variation.
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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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Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.
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No book can be so good, as to be profitable when negligently read.
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There is nothing more miserable and foolish than anticipation.
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Do not grudge your brother his rest. He has at last become free, safe and immortal, and ranges joyous through the boundless heavens; he has left this low-lying region and has soared upwards to that place which receives in its happy bosom the souls set free from the chains of matter. Your brother has not lost the light of day, but has obtained a more enduring light. He has not left us, but has gone on before.
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The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible resolution; who resists to sorest temptation from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menaces and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God is most unfaltering.
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Religion worships God, while superstition profanes that worship.
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Let us bear with magnanimity whatever it is needful for us to bear.
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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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It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.
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An action will not be right unless the will be right; for from thence is the action derived. Again, the will will not be right unless the disposition of the mind be right; for from thence comes the will.
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Leave in concealment what has long been concealed.
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There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in self.
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No wind blows in favor of a ship without direction.
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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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Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?