Seneca the Younger Quotes
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It is sweet to mingle tears with tears; Griefs, where they wound in solitude, Wound more deeply.
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All I desire is, that my poverty may not be a burden to myself, or make me so to others; and that is the best state of fortune that is neither directly necessitous nor far from it. A mediocrity of fortune, with gentleness of mind, will preserve us from fear or envy; which is a desirable condition; for no man wants power to do mischief.
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A hated government does not long survive.
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The fortune of war is always doubtful.
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With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.
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Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.
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If you wish another to keep your secret, first keep it to yourself.
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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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Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.
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Sovereignty over any foreign land is insecure.
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A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
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Men's language is as their lives.
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Let me therefore live as if every moment were to be my last.
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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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It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know.
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Virtue is that perfect good, which is the complement of a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs to mortality.
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There is this blessing, that while life has but one entrance, it has exits innumerable, and as I choose the house in which I live, the ship in which I will sail, so will I choose the time and manner of my death.
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Some lack the fickleness to live as they wish and just live as they have begun.
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It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.
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Death falls heavily on that man who, known too well to others, dies in ignorance of himself.
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The vices of idleness are only to be shaken off by active employment.
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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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God is near you, is with you, is inside you.
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It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.