Seneca the Younger Quotes
-
It is a youthful failing to be unable to control one's impulses.
-
As long as you live, learn how to live.
-
Fine conduct is always spontaneous.
-
Small sorrows speak great ones are silent.
-
Fortune's not content with knocking a man down; she sends him spinning head over heels, crash upon crash.
-
Real improvement is of slow growth only.
-
We ought to take outdoor walks, to refresh and raise our spirits by deep breathing in the open air.
-
The wise man lives as long as he should, not just as long as he likes.
-
Light is that grief which counsel can allay.
-
...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?
-
Nothing costs so much as what is bought by prayers.
-
Epileptics know by signs when attacks are imminent and take precautions accordingly; we must do the same in regard to anger
-
Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing.
-
He who is penitent is almost innocent.
-
Don't stumble over something behind you.
-
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.
-
Refrain from following the example of those whose craving is for attention, not their own improvement.
-
Misfortune is the test of a person's merit.
-
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.
-
Golden roofs break men's rest.
-
If I only have the will to be grateful, I am so.
-
What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
-
For what else is Nature but God and the Divine Reason that pervades the whole universe and all its parts.
-
No one can long hide behind a mask; the pretense soon lapses into the true character.