Seneca the Younger Quotes
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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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Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.
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The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and patient courage in adversity.
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Virtue is shut out from no one; she is open to all, accepts all, invites all, gentlemen, freedmen, slaves, kings, and exiles; she selects neither house nor fortune; she is satisfied with a human being without adjuncts.
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There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.
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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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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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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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Misfortunes, in fine, cannot be avoided; but they may be sweetened, if not overcome, and our lives made happy by philosophy.
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Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.
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If you don't know, ask. You will be a fool for the moment, but a wise man for the rest of your life.
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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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Anger, though concealed, is betrayed by the countenance. ?That anger is not warrantable which hath seen two suns.
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Solitude and company may be allowed to take their turns: the one creates in us the love of mankind, the other that of ourselves; solitude relieves us when we are sick of company, and conversation when we are weary of being alone, so that the one cures the other. There is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to use his time
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Let him that hath done the good office conceal it; let him that received it disclose it.
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Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after rest. Just as you must not force fertile farmland, as uninterrupted productivity will soon exhaust it, so constant effort will sap our mental vigour, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers. Unremitting effort leads to a kind of mental dullness and lethargy.
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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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For men in a state of freedom had thatch for their shelter, while slavery dwells beneath marble and gold.
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A coward calls himself cautious, a miser thrifty.
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Who has more leisure than a worm?
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It is the sign of a weak mind to be unable to bear wealth.
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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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Whatsoever has exceeded its proper limit is in an unstable position.
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Prosperity asks for fidelity; adversity exacts it.