Seneca the Younger Quotes
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There is no genius free from some tincture of madness
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No man esteems anything that comes to him by chance; but when it is governed by reason, it brings credit both to the giver and receiver; whereas those favors are in some sort scandalous that make a man ashamed of his patron.
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The vices of idleness are only to be shaken off by active employment.
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Fire proves gold, adversity proves men.
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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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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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Let us fight the battle-retreat from the things that attract us and rouse ourselves to meet the things that actually attack us.
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We ought not to confine ourselves either to writing or to reading; the one, continuous writing, will cast a gloom over our strength, and exhaust it; the other will make our strength flabby and watery. It is better to have recourse to them alternately, and to blend one with the other, so that the fruits of one's reading may be reduced to concrete form by the pen.
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I do not sacrifice, but lend myself to business.
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If you wish another to keep your secret, first keep it to yourself.
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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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It's the great soul that surrenders itself to fate, but a puny degenerate thing that struggles.
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Why will no man confess his faults? Because he continues to indulge in them; a man cannot tell his dream till he wakes.
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Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
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Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
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Whom the dawn sees proud, evening sees prostrate.
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Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other.
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Our Creator shall continue to dwell above the sky, and that is where those on earth will end their thanksgiving.
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It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know.
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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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The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.
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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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You cease to be afraid when you cease to hope; for hope is accompanied by fear.
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Everyone rushes his life on, and suffers from a yearning for the future and a boredom with the present. But that man who devotes every hour to his own needs, who plans every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears tomorrow.