Seneca the Younger Quotes
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Epicurus says, "gratitude is a virtue that has commonly profit annexed to it." And where is the virtue that has not? But still the virtue is to be valued for itself, and not for the profit that attends it.
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Vice may be learnt, even without a teacher
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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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You roll my log, and I will roll yours.
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He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.
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It is well to be born either a king or a fool.
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It is the characteristic of a weak and diseased mind to fear the unfamiliar.
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No man is nobler born than another, unless he is born with better abilities and a more amiable disposition. They who make such a parade with their family pictures and pedigrees, are, properly speaking, rather to be called noted or notorious than noble persons. I thought it right to say this much, in order to repel the insolence of men who depend entirely upon chance and accidental circumstances for distinction, and not at all on public services and personal merit.
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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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Trifling trouble find utterance; deeply felt pangs are silent.
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A good person dyes events with his own color . . . and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.
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The kind of solace that arises from having company in misery is spiteful.
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Concealed anger is to be feared; but hatred openly manifested destroys its chance of revenge.
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People do not die - they kill themselves.
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There is nothing more despicable than an old man who has no other proof than his age to offer of his having lived long in the world.
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Reason wishes that the judgement it gives be just; anger wishes that the judgement it has given seem to be just.
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This is the difference between us Romans and the Etruscans: We believe that lightning is caused by clouds colliding, whereas they believe that clouds collide in order to create lightning. Since they attribute everything to gods, they are led to believe not that events have a meaning because they have happened, but that they happen in order to express a meaning.
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As gratitude is a necessary, and a glorious virtue, so also it is an obvious, a cheap, and an easy one; so obvious that wherever there is life there is a place for it; so cheap, that the covetous man may be gratified without expense, and so easy that the sluggard may be so likewise without labor.
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Upon occasion we should go as far as intoxication.... Drink washes cares away, stirs the mind from its lowest depths.... But in liberty moderation is wholesome, and so it is in wine.... We ought not indulge too often, for fear the mind contract a bad habit, yet it is right to draw it toward elation and release and to banish dull sobriety for a little.
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Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.
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To err is human. To repeat error is of the Devil.
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It is essential to make oneself used to putting up with a little. Even the wealthy and the well provided are continually met and frustrated by difficult times and situations. It is in no man's power to have whatever he wants; but he has it in his power not to wish for what he hasn't got, and cheerfully make the most of the things that do come his way.
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He who has fostered the sweet poison of love by fondling it, finds it too late to refuse the yoke which he has of his own accord assumed.
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The declaration of love may come sooner than expected. Take time before you reciprocate as this may simply be a statement of what they expect from you.