Quotes by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders.”

“Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”

“The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.”

“Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”

“Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.”

“All art is but imitation of nature.”

“To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.”

“If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.”

“Genius always gives its best at first prudence, at last.”

“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”

“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.”

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

“There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.”

“Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.”

“A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.”

“Where fear is, happiness is not.”

“There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.”

“We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.”

“Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.”

“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”

“True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”

“The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.”

“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?”

“Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune all these are names of the one and selfsame God.”

“God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.”

“Behold a worthy sight, to which the God, turning his attention to his own work, may direct his gaze. Behold an equal thing, worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with evil fortune.”

“It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.”

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

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

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

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

“Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.”

“The good things of prosperity are to be wished but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.”

“When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.”

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

“The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.”

“The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.”

“He that does good to another does good also to himself.”

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

“It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.”

“A great fortune is a great slavery.”

“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.”

“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.”

“A great mind becomes a great fortune.”

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

“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.”

“Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.”

“He who has great power should use it lightly.”

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

“The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.”

“The wish for healing has always been half of health.”

“Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.”

“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.”

“We are more often frightened than hurt and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”

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

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

“If you wished to be loved, love.”

“Love in its essence is spiritual fire.”

“For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.”

“Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.”

“Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both this is an observation of the Middle Way.”

“It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, - superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.”

“The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.”

“A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.”

“For greed all nature is too little.”

“Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.”

“What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.”

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

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

“Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.”

“Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely for science is but one.”

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

“Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.”

“Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.”

“Time discovers truth.”

“I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.”

“No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.”

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

“In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.”

“In war there is no prize for runner-up.”

“No man was ever wise by chance.”

“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.”

Click here to go back to main page.

Learn more about Lucius Annaeus Seneca.