Seneca the Younger Quotes
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How can a thing possibly govern others when it cannot be governed itself?
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What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend. That is progress indeed
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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 most onerous slavery is to be a slave to oneself.
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Ignorance is the cause of fear.
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You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
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Crime requires further crime to conceal it.
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What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing-to live in accord with his own nature.
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Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.
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Man is a reasoning Animal.
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Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.
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Our fears are always more numerous than our dangers.
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Philosophy is good advice, and no one gives good advice at the top of his lungs.
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The many speak highly of you, but have you really any grounds for satisfaction with yourself if you are the kind of person the many understand?
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What madness it is for a man to starve himself to enrich his heir, and so turn a friend into an enemy! For his joy at your death will be proportioned to what you leave him.
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It is one thing to remember, another to know. To remember is to safeguard something entrusted to the memory. But to know is to make each thing one's own, not depend on the text and always to look back to the teacher. "Zeno said this, Cleanthes said this." Let there be space between you and the book.
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No one can wear a mask for very long.
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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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The Best sign of Wisdom is the consistency between the words and deeds.
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Home joys are blessed of heaven.
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The place one's in, though, doesn't make any contribution to peace of mind: it's the spirit that makes everything agreeable to oneself.
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Prudence will punish to prevent crime, not to avenge it.
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God has not revealed all things to man and has entrusted us with but a fragment of His mighty work. But He who directs all things, who has established and laid the foundation of the world, who has clothed Himself with Creation, He is greater and better than that which He has wrought. Hidden from our eyes, He can only be reached by the spirit.
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Death: There's nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it-the fear of it.