Seneca The Younger Quotes

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

He that visits the sick in hopes of a legacy, but is never so friendly in all other cases, I look upon him as being no better than a raven that watches a weak sheep only to peck out its eyes.

See what daily exercise does for one.

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

The articulate, trained voice is more distracting than mere noise.

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.

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

The chief bond of the soldier is his oath of allegiance and love for the flag.

Luck never made a man wise.

Behold a contest worthy of a god, a brave man matched in conflict with adversity.

Be harsh with yourself at times.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

He who repents of having sinned is almost innocent.

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

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

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

A dwarf is small even if he stands on a mountain; a colossus keeps his height, even if he stands in a well.

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

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.

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

Our life's a moment and less than a moment, but even this mite nature has mockingly humored with some appearance of a longer span.

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.

No man ever became wise by chance.

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.

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

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

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.

If thou wishest to get rid of thy evil propensities, thou must keep far from evil companions.

However wretched a fellow-mortal may be, he is still a member of our common species.

Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.

If you don't know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favourable.

The wretched hasten to hear of their own miseries.

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.

If wisdom were offered me with this restriction, that I should keep it close and not communicate it, I would refuse the gift.

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

Sovereignty over any foreign land is insecure.

The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

No one can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.

A dwarf can stand on a mountain, he's no taller.

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

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

What once were vices are manners now.

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

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

Fire tries gold, misery tries brave men.

He who tenders doubtful safety to those in trouble refuses it.

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