Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Many shed tears merely for show, and have dry eyes when no one's around to observe them.
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Man's ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy-that he live in accordance with his own nature.
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Do what you should, not what you may.
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As was his language so was his life.
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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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The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.
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Death: There's nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it-the fear of it.
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No one's so old that he mayn't with decency hope for one more day.
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To give and to lose is nothing; but to lose and to give still is the part of a great mind.
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It is within the power of every man to live his life nobly, but of no man to live forever. Yet so many of us hope that life will go on forever, and so few aspire to live nobly.
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The soul has this proof of divinity: that divine things delight it.
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Everything hangs on one's thinking.
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Plato once wanted to punish one of his slaves and asked his nephew to do the actual whipping for he himself did not own his anger.
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My joy in learning is partly that it enables me to teach.
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The man who can be compelled knows not how to die.
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The most miserable mortals are they that deliver themselves up to their palates, or to their lusts; the pleasure is short, and turns presently nauseous, and the end of it is either shame or repentance.
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What with our hooks, snares, nets, and dogs, we are at war with all living creatures, and nothing comes amiss but that which is either too cheap or too common; and all this is to gratify a fantastical palate.
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The articulate, trained voice is more distracting than mere noise.
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There is no benefit so large that malignity will not lessen it; none so narrow that a good interpretation will not enlarge it.
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One who's our friend is fond of us; one who's fond of us isn't necessarily our friend.
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What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it.
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Unjust rule does not last forever.
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Fidelity purchased with money, money can destroy.
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A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness.