Seneca quotes
Roman statesman, dramatist, and Stoic philosopher. His Letters to Lucilius are a manual of practical ethics, written from a life lived close to power.
38 passages across 17 themes. More on Seneca.
On time
“Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
“No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him.”
“I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies, and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavour to become a better man.”
“If you would not have a man flinch when the crisis comes, train him before it comes.”
“It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.”
“It is disgraceful, instead of proceeding ahead, to be carried along, and then suddenly, amid the whirlpool of events, to ask in a dazed way: How did I get into this condition?”
“It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great.”
“No man ought to glory except in that which is his own.”
“You will have less money. Yes, and less trouble. Less influence. Yes, and less envy.”
On action
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
“I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith.”
“I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. It is not enough if you do not shrink from work; ask for it.”
On mind
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
“To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.”
“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”
“You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you.”
On death
“Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.”
“It was a great deed to conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death.”
“You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.”
“He who does not wish to die cannot have wished to live.”
On presence
“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
“Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself.”
On change
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
“You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.”
On freedom
“Socrates was ennobled by the hemlock draught. Wrench from Cato's hand his sword, the vindicator of liberty, and you deprive him of the greatest share of his glory.”
“Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily; I can show you many objects the quest and acquisition of which have wrested freedom from our hands.”
On contentment
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
On resilience
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
On courage
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
On purpose
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
On friendship
“What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself. That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.”
On meaning
“But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you.”
On solitude
“Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection.”
On fear
“You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived.”
On suffering
“Mucius put his hand into the fire. It is painful to be burned; but how much more painful to inflict such suffering upon oneself!”
On authenticity
“He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self!”