Seneca the Younger Quotes
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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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Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing for ever.
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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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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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Philosophy takes as her aim the state of happiness...she shows us what are real and what are only apparent evils. She strips men's minds of empty thinking, bestows a greatness that is solid and administers a check to greatness where it is puffed up and all an empty show; she sees that we are left no doubt about the difference between what is great and what is bloated.
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Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all. It sets the slave at liberty, carries the banished man home, and places all mortals on the same level, insomuch that life itself were a punishment without it.
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If we desire to judge justly, we must persuade ourselves that none of us is without sin.
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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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It is a tedious thing to be always beginning life; they live badly who always begin to live.
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There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in self.
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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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A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them.
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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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The man who while he gives thinks of what he will get in return, deserves to be deceived.
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The road by precepts is tedious, by example, short and efficacious.
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Whatever begins, also ends.
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Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.
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A thousand approaches lie open to death.
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So live with an inferior as you would wish a superior to live with you.
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The mind does not easily unlearn what it has been long in learning.
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The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest.
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No book can be so good, as to be profitable when negligently read.
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It's the great soul that surrenders itself to fate, but a puny degenerate thing that struggles.
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Self-denial is the best riches.