Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC - AD 65), simply called Seneca, also called Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, son of Annaeus Seneca or Seneca the Elder, born at Roman province Cordova (now in Spain), and brought to Rome when a child. He practised as a pleader at the bar, studied philosophy, and became the tutor of Nero. He acquired great riches. In the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero, he was caught up in AD 65. Nero charged him with conspiracy as a pretext, it is believed, to procure his wealth, and ordered to kill himself, which he did by opening his veins till he bled to death, a slow process and an agonising, owing to his age. He was of the Stoic school in philosophy, and wrote a number of treatises bearing chiefly on morals.Wisdom & Quotes
- Fire is the test of gold, adversity of strong men.
- On Providence
- To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.
– On Anger (De Ira)
- If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.
- Epistles
- Tanta stultitia mortalium est. ( Lord, what fools these mortals be! )
- Epistles
- All art is but imitation of nature.
- Epistles
- The soul alone raises us to nobility.
- Epistles
- Nothing is ours except time.
- Epistles
- Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
- Hercules Furens (The Madness of Hercules)
- We ask the outcome of a war, not the cause.
- Hercules Furens
- 'Tis the first art of kings, the power to suffer hate.
– Hercules Furens
- No easy way leads from the earth to heaven.
– Hercules Furens
- He worships God who knows him.
- Letters to Lucilius
- Luck never made a man wise.
- Letters to Lucilius
- Nature does not bestow virtue, it is an art.
- Letters to Lucilius
- What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?
– Letters to Lucilius
- For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.
– Letters to Lucilius
- The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Who is everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
– Letters to Lucilius
- It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
– Letters to Lucilius
- No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.
– Letters to Lucilius
- But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.
– Letters to Lucilius
- The best ideas are common property.
– Letters to Lucilius
- We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Prove your words by your deeds.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.
– Letters to Lucilius
- It is indeed foolish to be unhappy now because you may be unhappy at some future time.
– Letters to Lucilius
- You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.
– Letters to Lucilius
- You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
– Letters to Lucilius (on travel as a cure for discontent)
- Friendship is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm.
– Letters to Lucilius
- A golden bit does not make a better horse.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Man is a reasoning animal.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily; I can show you many objects the quest and acquisition of which have wrested freedom from our hands.
– Letters to Lucilius
- “You will have less money.” Yes, and less trouble. “Less influence.” Yes, and less envy.
– Letters to Lucilius
- He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self!
– Letters to Lucilius
- It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
– Letters to Lucilius (on argumentation)
- Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.
– Letters to Lucilius
- You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise.
– Letters to Lucilius
- But the wise man is fortified against all inroads; he is alert; he will not retreat before the attack of poverty, or of sorrow, or of disgrace, or of pain. He will walk undaunted both against them and among them.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Fortune has taken away, but Fortune has given.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.
– Letters to Lucilius
- As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.
– Letters to Lucilius
- It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
– Letters to Lucilius
- It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.
– Letters to Lucilius
- For no man is free who is a slave to his body.
– Letters to Lucilius
- We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?
– Letters to Lucilius
- As our acts and our thoughts are, so will our lives be.
– Letters to Lucilius
- And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle.
– Letters to Lucilius
- If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.
– Letters to Lucilius
- Our lack of confidence is not the result of difficulty. The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence.
– Letters to Lucilius
- There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
- On Tranquillity of the Mind
- Nobody becomes guilty by fate.
- Oedipus
- A good mind is a lord of a kingdom.
- Thyestes
- On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.
– Thyestes
- Worse than war is the very fear of war.
– Thyestes
- What else is nature but God?
-De Beneficiis
- Vices can be learnt even without a teacher.
- Natural Questions
- Uncontrolled violence is a fault of youth.
- Troades (The Trojan Women)
- Mercy oft doth offer death, not life.
– Pyrrhus in Troades
- The man who hopes for naught at least has naught to fear.
– Medea
- Unrighteous sovereignty has never long endured.
– Medea
- Who by sin advantage gains commits the sin.
– Medea
- Light cares speak out, the weighty have no words.
– Phaedra
- Sin must be hid by sin.
– Phaedra
- Not circumstance but will can make impure.
– Phaedra
- He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first installment of it.
– On benefit
- All savageness is a sign of weakness.
– On the Happy Life
- A great fortune is a great slavery.
– Of Consolation, To Polybius
Boudicca