Seneca

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. 4 BC-AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.

184 Quotes (Page 2 of 2)

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

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A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

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The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.

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So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

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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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Life is warfare.

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Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.

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Leisure without literature is death and burial alive.

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Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.

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If you wish to be loved; Love!

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Fidelity purchased with money, money can destroy.

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What once were vices are manners now.

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Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob.

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It is medicine, not scenery, for which a sick man must go searching.

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Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

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The mind is a matter over every kind of fortune; itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and misery.

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That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this -- that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.

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It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and prefer things in measure to things in excess.

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Modesty forbids what the law does not.

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But it is a pretty thing to see what money will do!

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A great fortune is a great slavery.

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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 you live according to the dictates of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the notions of man, you will never be rich.

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Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.

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That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.

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Remember that pain has this most excellent quality. If prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.

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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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Philosophy does not regard pedigree, she received Plato not as a noble, but she made him one.

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Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

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So enjoy present pleasures as to not mar those to come.

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The courts of kings are full of people, but empty of friends.

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Not he who has little, but he whose wishes more, is poor.

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There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.

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Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

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If you sit in judgment, investigate, if you sit in supreme power, sit in command.

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He is the most powerful who has himself, in his power.

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Authority founded on injustice is never of long duration.

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Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

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We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

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We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

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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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The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.

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Every guilty person is his own hangman.

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There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

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Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

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I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

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It is part of the cure to wish to be cured.

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He who repents of having sinned is almost innocent.

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Remove severe restraint and what will become of virtue?

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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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To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

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The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin.

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Whatever has overstepped its due bounds is always in a state of instability.

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There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude -- confidence in self.

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Other men's sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs.

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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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You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

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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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Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

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It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.

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A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.

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Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.

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When ever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

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When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

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Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

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Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.

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What was hard to suffer is sweet to remember.

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A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.

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Many shed tears merely for show, and have dry eyes when no one's around to observe them.

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Time discovered truth.

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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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Whenever you hold a fellow creature in distress, remember that he is a man.

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What is true belongs to me!

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What were once vices are the fashion of the day.

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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.

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What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

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The sun also shines on the wicked.

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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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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.

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Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

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