Top 995 Quotes & Sayings by Seneca the Younger - Page 12

The part of life which we really live is short.

The friends of the unfortunate live a long way off.

Life without literary studies is death.

Death is a punishment to some, to others a gift and to many a favour.

We have been born under a monarchy; to obey God is freedom.

Accustom yourself to that which you bear ill, and you will bear it well.

When some state or other offered Alexander a part of its territory and half of all its property he told them that 'he hadn't come to Asia with the intention of accepting whatever they cared to give him, but of letting them keep whatever he chose to leave them.' Philosophy, likewise, tells all other occupations: 'It's not my intention to accept whatever time is leftover from you; you shall have, instead, what I reject.' Give your whole mind to her.

We deliberate about the parcels of life, but not about life itself, and so we arrive all unawares at its different epochs, and have the trouble of beginning all again. And so finally it is that we do not walk as men confidently towards death, but let death come suddenly upon us.

Death is a release from and an end of all pains.

One must take all one's life to learn how to leave, and what will perhaps make you wonder more, one must take all one's life to learn how to die.

Those vices [luxury and neglect of decent manners] are vices of men, not of the times. [Lat., Hominum sunt ista [vitia], non temporum.

Where reason fails, time oft has worked a cure.

We haven't time to spare to hear whether it was between Italy and Sicily that he ran into a storm or somewhere outside the world we know-when every day we're running into our own storms, spiritual storms, and driven by vice into all the troubles that Ulysses ever knew.

Of all the felicities, the most charming is that of a firm and gentle friendship. It sweetens all our cares, dispels our sorrows, and counsels us in all extremities. Nay, if there were no other comfort in it than the pare exercise of so generous a virtue, even for that single reason a man would not be without it; it is a sovereign antidote against all calamities - even against the fear of death itself.

Injustice never rules forever.

Lightning will wreck its displeasures not only upon pillars, trees, and sheep, but upon altars and temples, and let the sacrilegious go free.

Take away ambition and vanity, and where will be your heroes and patriots?

A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness.

He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first installment of it.

If ever you come upon a grove of ancient trees which have grown to an exceptional height, shutting out a view of sky by a veil of pleached and intertwining branches, then the loftiness of the forest, the seclusion of the spot and your marvel at the thick unbroken shade in the midst of the open spaces, will prove to you the presence of deity.

Virtue hath no virtue if it be not impugned; then appeareth how great it is, of what value and power it is, when by patience it approveth what it works.

Man is a social animal.

It is a common thing to screw up justice to the pitch of an injury. A man may be over-righteous, and why not over-grateful, too? There is a mischievous excess that borders so close upon ingratitude that it is no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other; but, in regard that there is good-will in the bottom of it, however distempered; for it is effectually but kindness out of the wits.

The ascent from earth to heaven is not easy.

He who begs timidly courts a refusal.

That day which you fear as being the end of all things is the birthday of your eternity.

In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.

The greater part of progress is the desire to progress.

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!

Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give in to adversity, never to trust prosperity, and always to take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases, treating her as if she were actually going to do everything it is in her power to do. Whatever you have been expecting for some time comes as less of a shock.

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

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.

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.

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.

There's no delight in owning anything unshared.

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

The first proof of a well-ordered mind is to be able to pause and linger within itself.

Live among others as if God beheld you; speak to God as if others were listening.

For what else is Nature but God and the Divine Reason that pervades the whole universe and all its parts.

A disease is farther on the road to being cured when it breaks forth from concealment and manifests its power.

Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself.

The place one's in, though, doesn't make any contribution to peace of mind: it's the spirit that makes everything agreeable to oneself.

What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it.

Upon occasion we should go as far as intoxication.... Drink washes cares away, stirs the mind from its lowest depths.... But in liberty moderation is wholesome, and so it is in wine.... We ought not indulge too often, for fear the mind contract a bad habit, yet it is right to draw it toward elation and release and to banish dull sobriety for a little.

Greatness stands upon a precipice, and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces.

Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all. . . . .

Our fears vanish as the danger approaches.

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.

Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.

You can only acquire it successfully if you cease to feel any sense of shame.

Let us bear with magnanimity whatever it is needful for us to bear.

Who timidly requests invites refusal.

Lack of desire is the greatest riches.

Light griefs are plaintive , but great ones are dumb

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit

Plato once wanted to punish one of his slaves and asked his nephew to do the actual whipping for he himself did not own his anger.

Its harder for people to seek retirement from themselves than from the law

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

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. It is more powerful than external circumstances.

Philosophy takes as her aim the state of happiness...she shows us what are real and what are only apparent evils. She strips men's minds of empty thinking, bestows a greatness that is solid and administers a check to greatness where it is puffed up and all an empty show; she sees that we are left no doubt about the difference between what is great and what is bloated.