Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes
"Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Successful, Virtue, Crime)
"Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Success, People)
"Success consecrates the most offensive crimes."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Success)
"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Courage, Act)
"So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Men, God)
"Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Slavery)
"That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Law, May, Shame)
"The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Birthday, Fear, Eternity)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Science, Talent, Remarkable)
"That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Ambition, Ostentation, Pride)
"The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Liberty, Man, Old)
"See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Adversity, Man, Sight, World)
"Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Care)
"The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Anger)
"The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Men, Company, Grief)
"The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Conscience, First, Punishment, Sin)
"The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Knowledge, First, Salvation, Sin)
"The greatest remedy for anger is delay."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Anger, Delay)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Earth, Faces, Fortune, Heaven)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Grief, Nothing)
"Modesty forbids what the law does not."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Law, Modesty)
"Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Power)
"Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Light, Night)
"No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Heart, Discipline, Evil, May)
"No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Man, Taste)
"No man was ever wise by chance."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Chance, Man)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Truth, Being, Lying)
"No one is laughable who laughs at himself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Luxury, Poverty)
"Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Religion, People)
"Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Evil, Madness, Nothing)
"Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Work, God, Nothing)
"One crime has to be concealed by another."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Crime)
"One must steer, not talk."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Talk)
"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Friendship)
"The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man, Right, Wind)
"The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Hope, Fortune)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Maxims, Weight)
"No untroubled day has ever dawned for me."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Day)
"When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Advice)
"We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Virtue, Day, Night, Temptation, Today, Vices, Will)
"We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Grace, Hesitation)
"What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Difference)
"What is true belongs to me!"
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Nature)
"Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Fortune)
"Whatever is well said by another, is mine."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Heart, Will)
"The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Adversity, Circumstances, Man, Mind, Pressure)
"When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: People, Dumb, Envy)
"We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Adversity, Appreciation, Prosperity, Right)
"Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Mind, Speech)
"Where fear is, happiness is not."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Happiness, Fear)
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Opportunity, Being, Kindness)
"While we are postponing, life speeds by."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life)
"Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?"
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Happiness, Wisdom, Man, Needs, Nothing, Will)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Wisdom, Actions, Appetite, Firmness, Mind, Talk, Words)
"You learn to know a pilot in a storm."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Content, May, Mind, Style)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Power, Fear, Help, May, Service, Unkindness)
"The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Difficulty, Mind)
"May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Duty, Justice, May)
"The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Adversity, Prosperity)
"The wish for healing has always been half of health."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Health, Healing)
"There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Harm, Reality)
"There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Being, Poor, Will)
"There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Greatness, Mind)
"There is no delight in owning anything unshared."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Delight)
"We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Truth, Gods, Want)
"There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Remorse)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Health, Life, Money, Friend, Being, Benefits, Earth, Freedom, Obligation, Reason)
"There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Courage, Man, Nothing, Unhappiness, World)
"Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Time discovers truth."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Time, Truth)
"To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Art, Power, First)
"To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Happiness, Dependence, Future, Present)
"True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Praise)
"We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Imagination, Hurt, Reality)
"The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Future, Mind)
"There is no great genius without some touch of madness."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Genius, Madness)
"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Body, Difficulties, Labor, Mind)
"Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Action, Man, Risk)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: God, Work, Attention, Conflict, Evil, Fortune, Man, May, Sight)
"Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Age)
"Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Men, War, Adversity, Soldiers)
"Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: God, Nature, Fate, Fortune, Names)
"Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Contempt, Will)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Friend, Judgment, May, Respect, Self)
"For greed all nature is too little."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Nature, Greed)
"Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Death, End)
"Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Harm)
"Do everything as in the eye of another."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Eye)
"Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Will)
"Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Harvest)
"Every guilty person is his own hangman."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Belief, Exercise, Judgment, Man)
"Every reign must submit to a greater reign."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Every sin is the result of a collaboration."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Collaboration, Result, Sin)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Nature, Effort, Living, Nothing, World)
"Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Time, Travel, Friends)
"Crime when it succeeds is called virtue."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Virtue, Crime)
"A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Intemperance, Man, Mankind)
"The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Heart, Moderation, Prosperity)
"Love in its essence is spiritual fire."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Love, Fire, Spiritual)
"A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Intention)
"A great fortune is a great slavery."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Fortune, Slavery)
"A great mind becomes a great fortune."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Fortune, Mind)
"A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Nature)
"A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Injustice)
"A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Mankind)
"A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man)
"As long as you live, keep learning how to live."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Learning)
"A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Danger)
"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Punishment)
"A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Battle, Deserted, Party, Quarrel)
"A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Appetite, Liberty)
"All art is but imitation of nature."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Art, Nature, Imitation)
"All cruelty springs from weakness."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Cruelty, Weakness)
"Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Anger)
"Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Anger, Injury)
"For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Men, Wealth, End)
"A man's as miserable as he thinks he is."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man)
"It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Quality, Quantity)
"Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Anticipation, Living, Today, Tomorrow)
"In war there is no prize for runner-up."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: War)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: War, Victory, Dependence, Guidance, Perspective, Reason)
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Greatness, Road)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Fault, Man, Will)
"It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Nothing)
"It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Man)
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man, Poor)
"If you would judge, understand."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Violence, Youth)
"If you wished to be loved, love."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Love)
"It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Greatness, Excess, Measure, Mind)
"It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: God, Greatness, Man, Security)
"It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Knowledge, Difference, Sin)
"It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Desire)
"Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Earth, Eternity, Fire, Light, Rain, Sky, Sun, Wind)
"Life is warfare."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life)
"Life, if well lived, is long enough."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life)
"Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Acting, Excellence)
"Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Dumb, Light)
"It is quality rather than quantity that matters."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Quality, Quantity)
"He who is brave is free."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: God, Being)
"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man, Trials)
"Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: End, Grief)
"He has committed the crime who profits by it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Crime)
"He that does good to another does good also to himself."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Crime)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, Men, People, Existence, Observation)
"He who has great power should use it lightly."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Power)
"Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Genius, First, Prudence)
"Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Health, Life, Soul)
"I don't consider myself bald, I'm just taller than my hair."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Hair)
"I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Trust, Liberals)
"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."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Home, Peace, Character)
"I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"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?"
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Life, God, Thoughts, Open, Will, World)
"If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Man, Right, Wind)
"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Wind)
"If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Art, Man)
"If you judge, investigate."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca