Seneca the Younger Quotes
-
To be feared is to fear. No one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.
-
Levity of behavior is the bane of all that is good and virtuous.
-
Man is a social animal.
-
The wise man lives as long as he should, not just as long as he likes.
-
Servitude seizes on few, but many seize on her.
-
Philosophy alone makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short of us.
-
Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance.
-
Light cares speak, great ones are speechless.
-
In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.
-
Small sorrows speak great ones are silent.
-
As long as you live, learn how to live.
-
Don't stumble over something behind you.
-
We are wrong in looking forward to death: in great measure it's past already.
-
Of all the felicities, the most charming is that of a firm and gentle friendship. It sweetens all our cares, dispels our sorrows, and counsels us in all extremities. Nay, if there were no other comfort in it than the pare exercise of so generous a virtue, even for that single reason a man would not be without it; it is a sovereign antidote against all calamities - even against the fear of death itself.
-
When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.
-
He who is penitent is almost innocent.
-
Misfortune is the test of a person's merit.
-
Nothing is more disgraceful than that an old man should have nothing to show to prove that he has lived long, except his years.
-
Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things-eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies-since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.
-
It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
-
A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation...you have to catch yourself doing it before you can correct it.
-
He is greedy of life who is not willing to die when the world is perishing around him.
-
It is safer to offend certain men than it is to oblige them; for as proof that they owe nothing they seek recourse in hatred.
-
The hour which gives us life begins to take it away.