Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Life without the courage to die is slavery.
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Auditur et altera pars. (The other side shall be heard as well.)
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The most onerous slavery is to be a slave to oneself.
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Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
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As fate is inexorable, and not to be moved either with tears or reproaches, an excess of sorrow is as foolish as profuse laughter; while, on the other hand, not to mourn at all is insensibility.
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Crime oft recoils upon the author's head.
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It is bad to live for necessity; but there is no necessity to live in necessity.
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The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.
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A benefit is estimated according to the mind of the giver.
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Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness.
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The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.
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The man who can be compelled knows not how to die.
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Do you desire not to be angry? Be not inquisitive. He who inquires what is said of him only works out his own misery.
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Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.
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Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.
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As gratitude is a necessary, and a glorious virtue, so also it is an obvious, a cheap, and an easy one; so obvious that wherever there is life there is a place for it; so cheap, that the covetous man may be gratified without expense, and so easy that the sluggard may be so likewise without labor.
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No one's so old that he mayn't with decency hope for one more day.
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A good mind possesses a kingdom.
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The worst thing about getting old is evil men cease to fear you
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Let the man, who would be grateful, think of repaying a kindness, even while receiving it.
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It is by the benefit of letters that absent friends are in a manner brought together.
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True friends are the whole world to one another; and he that is a friend to himself is also a friend to mankind. Even in my studies the greatest delight I take is of imparting it to others; for there is no relish to me in the possessing of anything without a partner.
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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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I don’t mind citing a bad author if the line is good.