Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Necessity is stronger than duty.
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No one can keep a mask on long.
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The intellect must not be kept at consistent tension, but diverted by pastimes.... The mind must have relaxation, and will rise stronger and keener after recreation.
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It is safer to offend certain men than it is to oblige them; for as proof that they owe nothing they seek recourse in hatred.
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Prosperity asks for fidelity; adversity exacts it.
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You should rather suppose that those are involved in worthwhile duties who wish to have daily as their closest friends Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus and all the other high priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus. None of these will be too busy to see you, none of these will not send his visitor away happier and more devoted to himself, none of these will allow anyone to depart empty-handed. They are at home to all mortals by night and by day.
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There is no evil that does not promise inducements. Avarice promises money; luxury, a varied assortment of pleasures; ambition, a purple robe and applause. Vices tempt you by the rewards they offer.
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Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.
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These individulas have riches just as we say that we 'have a fever,' when really the fever has us.
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If ever you come upon a grove of ancient trees which have grown to an exceptional height, shutting out a view of sky by a veil of pleached and intertwining branches, then the loftiness of the forest, the seclusion of the spot and your marvel at the thick unbroken shade in the midst of the open spaces, will prove to you the presence of deity.
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Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon itself; for every guilty person is his own hangman.
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Anger, though concealed, is betrayed by the countenance. ?That anger is not warrantable which hath seen two suns.
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Pain, scorned by yonder gout-ridden wretch, endured by yonder dyspeptic in the midst of his dainties, borne bravely by the girl in travail. Slight thou art, if I can bear thee, short thou art if I cannot bear thee!
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He invites the commission of a crime who does not forbid it, when it is in his power to do so.
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A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment.
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Money has never yet made anyone rich.
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Vice may be learnt, even without a teacher
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He that by harshness of nature rules his family with an iron hand is as truly a tyrant as he who misgoverns a nation.
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Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance.
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The most imperious masters over their own servants are at the same time the most abject slaves to the servants of others.
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The philosopher: he alone knows how to live for himself. He is the one, in fact, who knows the fundamental thing: how to live.
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It is only the surprise and newness of the thing which makes that misfortune terrible which by premeditation might be made easy to us. For that which some people make light by sufferance, others do by foresight.
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Retirement without literary amusements is death itself, and a living tomb.
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The chief bond of the soldier is his oath of allegiance and love for the flag.