Seneca Quotes

There is no genius free from some tincture of madness

That grief is light which can take counsel.

If you judge, investigate.

Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.

A well-governed appetite is a great part of liberty

I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.

We gain so much by quickness, and lose so much by slowness.

A coward calls himself cautious, a miser thrifty.

How many discoveries are reserved for the ages to come when our memory shall be no more, for this world of ours contains matter for investigation for all generations.

See what daily exercise does for one.

Drunkenness is nothing but a self-induced state of insanity.

No one should feel pride in anything that is not his own.

That which we are not permitted to have we delight in; that which we can have is disregarded.

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

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

It is not the man who has little, but he who desires more, that is poor.

The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena or essentially Too late.

It is the constant fault and inseparable evil quality of ambition, that it never looks behind it.

No man ever became wise by chance.

Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so shall I choose my death when I am about to depart from life.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

There is the need for someone against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler, you won't make the crooked straight.

Drunkenness does not create vice; it merely brings it into view.

Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.

Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest.

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

Be harsh with yourself at times.

Luck never made a man wise.

There is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

All we see and admire today will burn in the universal fire that ushers in a new, just, happy world.

Fire tries gold, misery tries brave men.

The wretched hasten to hear of their own miseries.

We have lost morals, justice, honor, piety and faith, and that sense of shame which, once lost, can never be restored.

The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.

Let the man, who would be grateful, think of repaying a kindness, even while receiving it.

Men trust their eyes rather than their ears; the road by precept is long and tedious, by example short and effectual.

The abundance of books is distraction

The voice of flattery affects us after it has ceased, just as after a concert men find some agreeable air ringing in their ears to the exclusion of all serious business.

A good person dyes events with his own color . . . and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.

It is dishonorable to say one thing and think another; how much more dishonorable to write one thing and think another.

We sought therefore to amend our will, and not to suffer it through despite to languish long time in error.

Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.

Study rather to fill your mind than your coffers; knowing that gold and silver were originally mingled with dirt, until avarice or ambition parted them.

Let us ask what is best - not what is customary. Let us love temperance - let us be just - let us refrain from bloodshed.

I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.

Sovereignty over any foreign land is insecure.

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.

No man is free who is a slave to the flesh.