Seneca the Younger Quotes
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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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If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
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The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible resolution.
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Whatever has overstepped its due bounds is always in a state of instability.
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Reason wishes that the judgement it gives be just; anger wishes that the judgement it has given seem to be just.
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The mind makes the nobleman, and uplifts the lowly to high degree.
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Before old age I took care to live well; in old age I take care to die well; but to die well is to die willingly.
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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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There is nothing that Nature has made necessary which is more easy than death; we are longer a-coming into the world than going out of it; and there is not any minute of our lives wherein we may not reasonably expect it. Nay, it is but a momen'ts work, the parting of soul and body. What a shame is it then to stand in fear of anything so long that is over so soon!
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What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man's safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already. You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.
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What were once vices are the fashion of the day.
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So live with an inferior as you would wish a superior to live with you.
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There is nothing more miserable and foolish than anticipation.
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Such is the blindness, nay the insanity of mankind, that some men are driven to death by the fear of it.
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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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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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Revenge is an inhuman word.
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A man who has taken your time recognises no debt; yet it is the one he can never repay.
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No man finds it difficult to return to nature except the man who has deserted nature.
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The wise man lacked nothing but needed a great number of things, whereas the fool, on the other hand, needs nothing (for he does not know how to use anything) but lacks everything.
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Drunkenness doesn't create vices, but it brings them to the fore.
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We learn not for life but for the debating-room.
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A king is he who has laid fear aside and the base longings of an evil heart; whom ambition unrestrained and the fickle favor of the reckless mob move not.
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To the stars through difficulties.