Seneca the Younger Quotes
-
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.
-
The soul has this proof of divinity: that divine things delight it.
-
I was shipwrecked before I got aboard.
-
Life is short and art is long.
-
Unjust rule does not last forever.
-
Whereas a prolonged life is not necessarily better, a prolonged death is necessarily worse.
-
Do what you should, not what you may.
-
You can only acquire it successfully if you cease to feel any sense of shame.
-
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.
-
The shortest road to wealth lies in the contempt of wealth.
-
Nobody becomes guilty by fate.
-
What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing-to live in accord with his own nature.
-
A disease is farther on the road to being cured when it breaks forth from concealment and manifests its power.
-
It's a vice to trust all, and equally a vice to trust none.
-
Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.
-
Philosophy is good advice, and no one gives good advice at the top of his lungs.
-
A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.
-
We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.
-
This is the reason we cannot complain of life: it keeps no one against his will.
-
Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.
-
You want to live-but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?
-
Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure, if you know how to use it. The best morsel is reserved for last.
-
Demand not that I am the equal of the greatest, only that I am better than the wicked.
-
We are sure to get the better of fortune if we do but grapple with her.