Lucius Annaeus Seneca - Quotes

Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity, - time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

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. For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it. No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed. Therefore, encourage and toughen your spirit against the mishaps that afflict even the most powerful.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

The first thing which philosophy undertakes to give is fellow-feeling with all men; in other words, sympathy and sociability. We part company with our promise if we are unlike other men.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

But nothing is so damaging to good character as the habit of lounging at the games; for then it is that vice steals subtly upon one through the avenue of pleasure.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially from my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them. There are certain wholesome counsels, which may be compared to prescriptions of useful drugs; these I am putting into writing; for I have found them helpful in ministering to my own sores, which, if not wholly cured, have at any rate ceased to spread.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

For what purpose, then, do I make a man my friend? In order to have someone for whom I may die, whom I may follow into exile, against whose death I may stake my own life, and pay the pledge, too. The friendship which you portray is a bargain and not a friendship; it regards convenience only, and looks to the results.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

We marvel at certain animals because they can pass through fire and suffer no bodily harm; but how much more marvellous is a man who has marched forth unhurt and unscathed through fire and sword and devastation! Do you understand now how much easier it is to conquer a whole tribe than to conquer one man?
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

That which they are unwilling for men to know, they communicate to God. Do you not think, then, that some such wholesome advice as this could be given you: "Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening"?
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

The steadiest speaker, when before the public, often breaks into a perspiration, as if he had wearied or over-heated himself; some tremble in the knees when they rise to speak; I know of some whose teeth chatter, whose tongues falter, whose lips quiver. Training and experience can never shake off this habit; nature exerts her own power and through such a weakness makes her presence known even to the strongest.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

I know that you have plenty of spirit; for even before you began to equip yourself with maxims which were wholesome and potent to overcome obstacles, you were taking pride in your contest with Fortune; and this is all the more true, now that you have grappled with Fortune and tested your powers. For our powers can never inspire in us implicit faith in ourselves except when many difficulties have confronted us on this side and on that, and have occasionally even come to close quarters with us. It is only in this way that the true spirit can be tested, - the spirit that will never consent to come under the jurisdiction of things external to ourselves.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Accordingly, weigh carefully your hopes as well as your fears, and whenever all the elements are in doubt, decide in your own favour; believe what you prefer. And if fear wins a majority of the votes, incline in the other direction anyhow, and cease to harass your soul, reflecting continually that most mortals, even when no troubles are actually at hand or are certainly to be expected in the future, become excited and disquieted. No one calls a halt on himself, when he begins to be urged ahead; nor does he regulate his alarm according to the truth.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Let us, however, in so far as we can, avoid discomforts as well as dangers, and withdraw to safe ground, by thinking continually how we may repel all objects of fear. If I am not mistaken, there are three main classes of these: we fear want, we fear sickness, and we fear the troubles which result from the violence of the stronger.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

We should therefore look about us, and see how we may protect ourselves from the mob. And first of all, we should have no cravings like theirs; for rivalry results in strife. Again, let us possess nothing that can be snatched from us to the great profit of a plotting foe. Let there be as little booty as possible on your person. No one sets out to shed the blood of his fellow-men for the sake of bloodshed, - at any rate very few. More murderers speculate on their profits than give vent to hatred. If you are empty-handed, the highwayman passes you by: even along an infested road, the poor may travel in peace.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

It is clear to you, I am sure, Lucilius, that no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun. This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones. You must persevere, must develop new strength by continuous study, until that which is only a good inclination becomes a good settled purpose.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point. The false has no limits. When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless. Recall your steps, therefore, from idle things, and when you would know whether that which you seek is based upon a natural or upon a misleading desire, consider whether it can stop at any definite point. If you find, after having travelled far, that there is a more distant goal always in view, you may be sure that this condition is contrary to nature.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Cast away everything of that sort, if you are wise; nay, rather that you may be wise; strive toward a sound mind at top speed and with your whole strength. If any bond holds you back, untie it, or sever it. "But," you say, "my estate delays me; I wish to make such disposition of it that it may suffice for me when I have nothing to do, lest either poverty be a burden to me, or I myself a burden to others." You do not seem, when you say this, to know the strength and power of that good which you are considering.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

So it is with anger, my dear Lucilius; the outcome of a mighty anger is madness, and hence anger should be avoided, not merely that we may escape excess, but that we may have a healthy mind.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

While you are beginning to call your mind your own, meantime apply this maxim of the wise: consider that it is more important who receives a thing, than what it is he receives.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

For this reason men do not know what they wish, except at the actual moment of wishing; no man ever decided once and for all to desire or to refuse. Judgment varies from day to day, and changes to the opposite, making many a man pass his life in a kind of game. Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

No man is born rich. Every man, when he first sees light, is commanded to be content with milk and rags. Such is our beginning, and yet kingdoms are all too small for us!
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

The belly will not listen to advice; it makes demands, it importunes. And yet it is not a troublesome creditor; you can send it away at small cost, provided only that you give it what you owe, not merely all you are able to give.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

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.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Some men, indeed, only begin to live when it is time for them to leave off living. And if this seems surprising to you, I shall add that which will surprise you still more: Some men have left off living before they have begun.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Others also are moved by a satiety of doing and seeing the same things, and not so much by a hatred of life as because they are cloyed with it. We slip into this condition, while philosophy itself pushes us on, and we say; "How long must I endure the same things? Shall I continue to wake and sleep, be hungry and be cloyed, shiver and perspire? There is an end to nothing; all things are connected in a sort of circle; they flee and they are pursued. Night is close at the heels of day, day at the heels of night; summer ends in autumn, winter rushes after autumn, and winter softens into spring; all nature in this way passes, only to return. I do nothing new; I see nothing new; sooner or later one sickens of this, also." There are many who think that living is not painful, but superfluous.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

You ought to make yourself of a different stamp from the multitude. Therefore, while it is not yet safe to withdraw into solitude,[4] seek out certain individuals; for everyone is better off in the company of somebody or other, – no matter who, – than in his own company alone. "The time when you should most of all withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd." Yes, provided that you are a good, tranquil, and self-restrained man; otherwise, you had better withdraw into a crowd in order to get away from yourself. Alone, you are too close to a rascal.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it. What terrors have prisons and bonds and bars for him? His way out is clear. There is only one chain which binds us to life, and that is the love of life. The chain may not be cast off, but it may be rubbed away, so that, when necessity shall demand, nothing may retard or hinder us from being ready to do at once that which at some time we are bound to do.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

For some persons the remedy should be merely prescribed; in the case of others, it should be forced down their throats.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

A man is threatened with death by an enemy, but this form of death is anticipated by an attack of indigestion. And if we are willing to examine critically the various causes of our fear, we shall find that some exist, and others only seem to be. We do not fear death; we fear the thought of death. For death itself is always the same distance from us; wherefore, if it is to be feared at all, it is to be feared always. For what season of our life is exempt from death?
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Encourage your friend to despise stout-heartedly those who upbraid him because he has sought the shade of retirement and has abdicated his career of honours, and, though he might have attained more, has preferred tranquillity to them all. Let him prove daily to these detractors how wisely he has looked out for his own interests. Those whom men envy will continue to march past him; some will be pushed out of the ranks, and others will fall. Prosperity is a turbulent thing; it torments itself. It stirs the brain in more ways than one, goading men on to various aims, - some to power, and others to high living. Some it puffs up; others it slackens and wholly enervates.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

You are right when you urge that we increase our mutual traffic in letters. But the greatest benefit is to be derived from conversation, because it creeps by degrees into the soul. Lectures prepared beforehand and spouted in the presence of a throng have in them more noise but less intimacy. Philosophy is good advice; and no one can give advice at the top of his lungs.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

No man of exalted gifts is pleased with that which is low and mean; the vision of great achievement summons him and uplifts him. Just as the flame springs straight into the air and cannot be cabined or kept down any more than it can repose in quiet, so our soul is always in motion, and the more ardent it is, the greater its motion and activity. But happy is the man who has given it this impulse toward better things! He will place himself beyond the jurisdiction of chance; he will wisely control prosperity; he will lessen adversity, and will despise what others hold in admiration.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

But words, even if they came to you readily and flowed without any exertion on your part, yet would have to be kept under control. For just as a less ostentatious gait becomes a philosopher, so does a restrained style of speech, far removed from boldness. Therefore, the ultimate kernel of my remarks is this: I bid you be slow of speech.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

The easiest thing in the world, - to live in accordance with his own nature. But this is turned into a hard task by the general madness of mankind; we push one another into vice. And how can a man be recalled to salvation, when he has none to restrain him, and all mankind to urge him on?
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Therefore, with regard to the objects which we pursue, and for which we strive with great effort, we should note this truth; either there is nothing desirable in them, or the undesirable is preponderant. Some objects are superfluous; others are not worth the price we pay for them. But we do not see this clearly, and we regard things as free gifts when they really cost us very dear.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

A good conscience welcomes the crowd, but a bad conscience, even in solitude, is disturbed and troubled. If your deeds are honourable, let everybody know them; if base, what matters it that no one knows them, as long as you yourself know them?
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

For although the sum and substance of the happy life is unalloyed freedom from care, and though the secret of such freedom is unshaken confidence, yet men gather together that which causes worry, and, while travelling life's treacherous road, not only have burdens to bear, but even draw burdens to themselves; hence they recede farther and farther from the achievement of that which they seek, and the more effort they expend, the more they hinder themselves and are set back. This is what happens when you hurry through a maze; the faster you go, the worse you are entangled.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

That which annoys us does not necessarily injure us; but we are driven into wild rage by our luxurious lives, so that whatever does not answer our whims arouses our anger.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.

Rid me of these shadowy terrors; then you will more easily deliver to me the instruction for which I have prepared myself. At our birth nature made us teachable, and gave us reason, not perfect, but capable of being perfected.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus and Richard Mott Gummere (Translator). Moral Letters to Lucilius. 64 C.E.