Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Prudence and love cannot be mixed; you can end love, but never moderate it.
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The wise man then followed a simple way of life-which is hardly surprising when you consider how even in this modern age he seeks to be as little encumbered as he possibly can.
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We are born to lose and to perish, to hope and to fear, to vex ourselves and others; and there is no antidote against a common calamity but virtue; for the foundation of true joy is in the conscience.
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Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come . . . . Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate.
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What must be shall be; and that which is a necessity to him that struggles, is little more than choice to him that is willing.
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The abundance of books is distraction
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We are taught for the schoolroom, not for life.
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The friends of the unfortunate live a long way off.
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Men love their vices and hate them at the same time.
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A man afraid of death will never play the part of a live man.
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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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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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The fortune of war is always doubtful.
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Pleasure dies at the very moment when it charms us most.
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I am like a book, with pages that have stuck together for want of use: my mind needs unpacking and the truths stored within must be turned over from time to time, to be ready when occasion demands.
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The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.
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What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves.
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Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.
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Some pretend want of power to make a competent return; and you shall find in others a kind of graceless modesty, that makes a man ashamed of requiting an obligation, because it is a confession that he has received one.
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The proper amount of wealth is that which neither descends to poverty nor is far distant from it.
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You cease to be afraid when you cease to hope; for hope is accompanied by fear.
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Watch over yourself. Be your own accuser, then your judge; ask yourself grace sometimes, and, if there is need, impose upon yourself some pain.
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Lay hold of today's task, and you will not depend so much upon tomorrow's.
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The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.