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Seneca Quotes
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| He who repents of having sinned is almost innocent. |
| Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue? |
What should a wise person do when given a blow? Same as Cato when he was attacked; not fire up or revenge the insult., or even return the blow, but simply ignore it.
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The acquisition of riches has been to many not an end to their miseries, but a change in them: The fault is not in the riches, but the disposition.
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| Whatever has overstepped its due bounds is always in a state of instability. |
| There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude -- confidence in self. |
| Other men's sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs. |
If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.
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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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| You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself. |
| Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit. |
| A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners. |
| It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin. |
| Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery. |
| When ever the speech is corrupted so is the mind. |
| When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people. |
| Success consecrates the most offensive crimes. |
| Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody. |
| A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary. |
| What was hard to suffer is sweet to remember. |
Many shed tears merely for show, and have dry eyes when no one's around to observe them.
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The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.
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| Time discovered truth. |
| What were once vices are the fashion of the day. |
Why do people not confess vices? It is because they have not yet laid them aside. It is a waking person only who can tell their dreams.
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| All cruelty springs from weakness. |
| What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more. |
| The sun also shines on the wicked. |
No action will be considered blameless, unless the will was so, for by the will the act was dictated.
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Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life -- in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.
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When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
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| It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence. |
| There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals. |
| Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb. |
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
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| We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right. |
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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| The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity. |
| The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity. |
| Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life. |
| Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness. |
| Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures. |
| While we teach, we learn. |
| Those who boast of their decent, brag on what they owe to others. |
| No man was ever wise by chance. |
| Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor. |
| If you wished to be loved, love. |
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.
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Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
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Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life--in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as talk, and to make our words and actions all of a color.
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Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
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| Whatever is to make us better and happy, God has placed either openly before us or close to us. |
| A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. |
| A great mind becomes a great fortune. |
| A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary. |
| A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature. |
| A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts. |
| A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners. |
| A man's as miserable as he thinks he is. |
| A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand. |
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.
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| Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it. |
| As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. |
| A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty. |
| All art is but imitation of nature. |
| All cruelty springs from weakness. |
| Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall. |
| As long as you live, keep learning how to live. |
| Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. |
Behold a worthy sight, to which the God, turning his attention to his own work, may direct his gaze. Behold an equal thing, worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with evil fortune.
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| Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war. |
| Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them. |
| Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God. |
| Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute. |
Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.
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| Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all. |
| Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. |
| Every reign must submit to a greater reign. |
| Do everything as in the eye of another. |
| Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got. |
| Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing. |
| Every guilty person is his own hangman. |
| Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment. |
| Every sin is the result of a collaboration. |
Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.
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| Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today. |
| Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself. |
| For greed all nature is too little. |
| For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them. |
| Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last. |
God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.
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| He has committed the crime who profits by it. |
| He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it. |
| He that does good to another does good also to himself. |
| He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule. |
| He who has great power should use it lightly. |
| He who is brave is free. |
| Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it. |
| I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives. |
I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.
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| If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. |
| If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail. |
| If you judge, investigate. |
| If you wished to be loved, love. |
| If you would judge, understand. |
Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.
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| It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. |
| It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so. |
| It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it. |
| It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. |
| It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. |
| It is quality rather than quantity that matters. |
| It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence. |
| It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god. |
| It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters. |
| It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess. |
| It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin. |
It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.
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Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.
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| Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters. |
| Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb. |
| No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it. |
| Love in its essence is spiritual fire. |
| Modesty forbids what the law does not. |
| May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense. |
| Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. |
| Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them. |
| No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline. |
| No man was ever wise by chance. |
| No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to. |
| No untroubled day has ever dawned for me. |
Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.
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Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.
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| Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing. |
| Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself. |
| One crime has to be concealed by another. |
| Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough. |
| One must steer, not talk. |
| One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. |
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
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Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.
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| See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse. |
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
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Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
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| So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you. |
| Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. |
| Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. |
| The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave. |
| Success consecrates the most offensive crimes. |
| Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody. |
| That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned. |
| That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty. |
The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
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| The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity. |
| The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger. |
| The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company. |
| The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin. |
| The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. |
| The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity. |
| The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it. |
| The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable. |
| The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned. |
The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances.
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| The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns. |
| The wish for healing has always been half of health. |
| There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality. |
| There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it. |
| There is no delight in owning anything unshared. |
| There is no great genius without some touch of madness. |
| There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. |
| Time discovers truth. |
| To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power. |
| To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself. |
| True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. |
| We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right. |
| True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong. |
| We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. |
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
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We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
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| What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more. |
| When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people. |
| What is true belongs to me! |
| Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down. |
| What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat. |
| Whatever is well said by another, is mine. |
| Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart. |
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
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| When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill. |
| While we are postponing, life speeds by. |
| Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind. |
| Where fear is, happiness is not. |
| Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. |
| Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display? |
| You learn to know a pilot in a storm. |
| You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself. |
| A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two. |
| A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. |
I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?
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In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.
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| Life, if well lived, is long enough. |
We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.
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| A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer. |
| A great fortune is a great slavery. |
| A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor. |
| Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders. |
| Crime when it succeeds is called virtue. |
Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
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| I don't consider myself bald, I'm just taller than my hair. |
| I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good. |
| If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind. |
| In war there is no prize for runner-up. |
| Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands. |
| Life is warfare. |
| No one is laughable who laughs at himself. |
| Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things. |
| Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. |
| Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit. |
| Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery. |
| The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity. |
| The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin. |
| The greatest remedy for anger is delay. |
| The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember. |
| There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich. |
| There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals. |
| There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage. |
| We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods. |
| Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself. |
| Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color. |
