Seneca the Younger Quotes
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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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During difficult times and after mistakes and failures it is helpful to remember ... Oftentimes calamity turns to our advantage and great ruins make way for greater glories.
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A coward calls himself cautious, a miser thrifty.
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To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.
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You roll my log, and I will roll yours.
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Abstinence is easier than temperance.
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No action will be considered blameless, unless the will was so, for by the will the act was dictated.
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People do not die - they kill themselves.
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It is the characteristic of a weak and diseased mind to fear the unfamiliar.
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He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.
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Long is the road to learning by precepts, but short and successful by examples.
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It is well to be born either a king or a fool.
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As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves
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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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Make haste to live, and consider each day a life.
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Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself.
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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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As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit
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Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.
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Greatness stands upon a precipice, and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces.
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There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly.
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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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To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.
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He who seeks wisdom is a wise man; he who thinks he has found it is mad.