Seneca Quotes

Learn how to feel joy.

Everything may happen.

Man is a social animal.

He who is brave is free.

While we teach we learn.

Man is a reasoning animal.

Whatever begins, also ends.

Luck never made a man wise.

Teach the art of living well.

As the world leads, we follow.

Time heals what reason cannot.

Luck never made any man wiser.

No man was ever wise by chance.

If you would judge, understand.

Love of bustle is not industry.

Speech is the index of the mind.

A good mind possesses a kingdom.

Old age is an incurable disease.

Disaster is Virtue's opportunity.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

All art is but imitation of nature.

The best ideas are common property.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

This body is not a home, but an inn.

Success makes some crimes honorable.

Abstinence is easier than temperance.

The greatest cure for anger is delay.

Philosophy is the health of the mind.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

Philosophy is the art and law of life.

Greed's worst point is its ingratitude.

Light cares speak, great ones are dumb.

You roll my log, and I will roll yours.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Courage leads starward, fear toward death.

A great soul prefers moderation to excess.

One should count each day a separate life.

Noble examples stir us up to noble actions.

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

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

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.

The sharper the storm, the sooner it's over.

Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.

Who chance often passes by, it finds at last.

How rare to find old age and happiness in one!

Gold is tried by fire, brave men by adversity.

Even after a bad harvest, there must be sowing.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

The foundation of true joy is in the conscience.

The conscience of well-doing is an ample reward.

That which takes effect by chance is not an art.

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.

Modesty once extinguished knows not how to return.

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

Destiny leads the willing, but drags the unwilling.

To know how to despise pleasure is itself a pleasure.

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

What once were vices, are now the manners of the day.

Vices creep into our hearts under the name of virtues.

We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

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

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

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.

Pleasure dies at the very moment when it charms us most.

Life is most delightful when it is on the downward slope.

There is no satisfaction in any good without a companion.

My joy in learning is partly that it enables me to teach.

The stomach begs and clamors, and listens to no precepts.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

If you stop supporting that crowd, it will support itself.

The vulgar bark at men of mark, as dogs bark at strangers.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

He who would do great things should not attempt them alone.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Shut the door on the sun and you will open it to the doctor.

A great step towards independence is a good-humored stomach.

Fortune dreads the brave, and is only terrible to the coward.

Known to others all too well, they die to themselves unknown.

A lesson that is never learned can never be too often taught.

I had rather never receive a kindness, than never bestow one.

He will be the slave of many masters who is his body's slave.

The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself.

It better befits a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

No book can be so good as to be profitable when negligently read.

The origin of all men is the same and virtue is the only nobility.

Philosophy did not find Plato already a noble man, it made him one.

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

If you are surprised at the number of our maladies, count our cooks.

Fame does not always light at random: sometimes she chooses her man.

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

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.

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

Wouldst thou subject all things to thyself? Subject thyself to thy reason.

You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.

Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation, has an unstable foundation.

It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who craves more.

I've been mixing with humanity today and feel the less humane, in consequence.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.

A man who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.

Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts.

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

I would so live as if I knew that I received my being only for the benefit of others.

The artist finds a greater pleasure in painting than in having completed the picture.

Many a man has found the acquisition of wealth only a change, not an end, of miseries.

Men are but children, too, though they have gray hairs; they are only of a larger size.

Life is like a play! It's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Life is like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

A hungry people listens not to reason, not cares for justice, nor is bent by any prayers.

Many men might have attained to wisdom had they not assumed that they already possessed it.

What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing — to live in accord with his own nature.

When we have provided against cold, hunger and thirst, all the rest is but vanity and excess.

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

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

Unhappy are those men, even though they rule the world, do not consider themselves supremely blest.

Let tears flow of their own accord: their flowing is not inconsistent with inward peace and harmony.

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

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

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

Freedom can't be bought for nothing. If you hold her precious, you must hold all else of little worth.

The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will.

Ambition [may be] so frenzied that you regard yourself last in the race, if there is anyone in front of you.

What nature requires (is essential) is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

Our fate is decreed, and things do not happen by chance, but every man's portion of joy or sorrow is predetermined.

Nothing is more dishonorable than an old man, heavy with years, who has no other evidence of having lived long except his age.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.  When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

What must be shall be; and that which is a necessity to him that struggles, is little more than a choice to him that is willing.

Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things.

No man can have all he wants, but a man can refrain from wanting what he has not, and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.

It is the bounty of nature that we live, but of philosophy, that we live well; which is, in truth, a greater benefit than life itself.

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

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

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones at hand do more toward a happy life than whole volumes that we know not where to find.

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.

Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of everyone to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.

The rule is, we are to give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there's no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

Money does all things for reward. Some are pious and honest as long as they thrive upon it, but if the devil himself gives better wages, they soon change their party.

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

If you devote your time to study, you will avoid all the irksomeness of this life, nor will you long for the approach of night, being tired of the day; nor will you be a burden to yourself, nor your society insupportable to others.

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.

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.

A man should not fear fortune, for a man counts not only chattels, property, and high office, but even his body, his eyes, his hands, and everything whose use makes life dearer to us, nay, even his very self, to be things whose possession is uncertain; he lives as though he had borrowed them, and is ready to return them cheerfully whenever they are claimed.