Seneca the Younger Quotes
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To make a commencement requires a mental effort.
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A thousand approaches lie open to death.
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The law of the pleasure in having done anything for another is, that the one almost immediately forgets having given, and the other remembers eternally having received.
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Fate rules the affairs of men, with no recognizable order.
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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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Prudence will punish to prevent crime, not to avenge it.
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Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.
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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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I do not sacrifice, but lend myself to business.
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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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Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures.
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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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You cannot, I repeat, successfully acquire it and preserve your modesty at the same time.
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Live among others as if God beheld you; speak to God as if others were listening.
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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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Persistent kindness conquers the ill-disposed.
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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 is no fair wind for one who knows not whither he is bound.
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No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another, if thou wishest to live for thyself.
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So live with an inferior as you would wish a superior to live with you.
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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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Whom the dawn sees proud, evening sees prostrate.
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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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Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.