Seneca the Younger Quotes
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This is the reason we cannot complain of life: it keeps no one against his will.
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Be not too hasty either with praise or blame; speak always as though you were giving evidence before the judgement-seat of the Gods.
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No one can lead a happy life, or even one that is bearable, without the pursuit of wisdom, and that the perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life, although even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable. Yet this conviction, clear as it is, needs to be strengthened and given deeper roots through daily reflection; making noble resolutions is not a important as keeping the resolutions you have made already.
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To preserve the life of citizens, is the greatest virtue in the father of his country.
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That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this -- that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.
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No good thing is pleasant without friends to share it.
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Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes.
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The worst thing about getting old is evil men cease to fear you
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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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A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
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The mind, unless it is pure and holy, cannot see God.
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As was his language so was his life.
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Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.
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Nobody becomes guilty by fate.
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The man who can be compelled knows not how to die.
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Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.
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Life without the courage to die is slavery.
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We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole.
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A young man respects and looks up to his teachers.
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There are more people abusive to others than lie open to abuse themselves; but the humor goes round, and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow.
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If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
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Virtue with some is nothing but successful temerity.
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Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.
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The evil which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. We lack strength to endure the least task, being incapable of suffering pain, powerless to enjoy pleasure, impatient with everything. How many invoke death when, after having tried every sort of change, they find themselves reverting to the same sensations, unable to discover any new experience.