Seneca the Younger Quotes
-
Prudence and love cannot be mixed; you can end love, but never moderate it.
-
God has given some gifts to the whole human race, from which no one is excluded.
-
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.
-
What else is nature but God?
-
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.
-
Truths open to everyone, and the claims aren't all staked yet.
-
Simple is the language of truth.
-
The wise man will not pardon any crime that ought to be punished, but he will accomplish, in a nobler way, all that is sought in pardoning. He will spare some and watch over some, because of their youth, and others on account of their ignorance. His clemency will not fall short of justice, but will fulfill it perfectly.
-
What you think is the summit is only a step up
-
Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must learn first, and then strengthen your learning by action. If this be true, not only do the doctrines of wisdom help us but the precepts also, which check and banish our emotions by a sort of official decree.
-
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
-
This body is not a home, but an inn; and that only for a short time.
-
Life is most delightful on the downward slope.
-
Life without the courage to die is slavery.
-
Sovereignty over any foreign land is insecure.
-
We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.
-
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. We must learn to control and focus the force of our imagination on the good, bright side so it is positive and constructive helping ourselves and others, rather than let its force focus on the bad, dark side so it is negative and destructive hurting ourselves and others!
-
People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his kindness they still remain in his debt.
-
A man afraid of death will never play the part of a live man.
-
Speech devoted to truth should be straightforward and plain
-
Every one has time if he likes. Business runs after nobody: people cling to it of their own free will and think that to be busy is a proof of happiness.
-
It is not how many books thou hast, but how good; careful reading profiteth, while that which is full of variety delighteth.
-
To forgive all is as inhuman as to forgive none
-
I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better then the bad.