Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Light is that grief which counsel can allay.
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When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.
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Small sorrows speak great ones are silent.
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We pardon familiar vices.
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Nothing costs so much as what is bought by prayers.
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He will live ill who does not know how to die well.
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Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing.
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The wise man lives as long as he should, not just as long as he likes.
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...the geometrician teaches me how to work out the size of my estates rather than how to work out how much a man needs in order to have enough....You geometers can calculate the area of circles, can reduce any given shape to a square, can state the distances separating starts. Nothing's outside your scope when it comes to measurement. Well, if you're such an expert, measure a man's soul; tell me how large or how small that is. You can define a straight line; what use is that to you if you've no idea what straightness means in life?
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The book-keeping of benefits is simple: it is all expenditure; if any one returns it, that is clear gain; if he does not return it, it is not lost, I gave it for the sake of giving.
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Don't stumble over something behind you.
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He who is penitent is almost innocent.
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For what else is Nature but God and the Divine Reason that pervades the whole universe and all its parts.
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Golden roofs break men's rest.
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What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
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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.
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No one can long hide behind a mask; the pretense soon lapses into the true character.
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Epileptics know by signs when attacks are imminent and take precautions accordingly; we must do the same in regard to anger
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Fortune's not content with knocking a man down; she sends him spinning head over heels, crash upon crash.
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Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.
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Refrain from following the example of those whose craving is for attention, not their own improvement.
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Go on and increase in valor, O boy! this is the path to immortality.
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While the fates permit, live happily; life speeds on with hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned.
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You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.