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Seneca

Roman statesman and stoic philosopher who was an advisor to Nero; his nine extant tragedies are modeled on Greek tragedies (circa 4 BCE - 65 AD).

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A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness.

– Seneca

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A sword never kills anybody it is a tool in the killer's hand.

– Seneca

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All art is an imitation of nature.

– Seneca

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An unpopular rule is never long maintained.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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As was his language so was his life.

– Seneca

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Be not too hasty either with praise or blame speak always as though you were giving evidence before the judgement-seat of the Gods.

– Seneca

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Be not too hasty either with praise or blame; speak always as though you were giving evidence before the judgement-seat of the Gods.

– Seneca

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Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.

– Seneca

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Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all. . . . .

– Seneca

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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.

– Seneca

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Dangerous is wrath concealed. Hatred proclaimed doth lose its chance of wreaking vengeance.

– Seneca

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Delay not swift the flight of fortune's greatest favours.

– Seneca

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Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.

– Seneca

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Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

– Seneca

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Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour the body.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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Fate rules the affairs of mankind with no recognizable order.

– Seneca

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Fire is the test of gold adversity, of strong men.

– Seneca

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He who boasts of his ancestry is praising the deeds of another.

– Seneca

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He who spares the wicked injures the good.

– Seneca

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He will live ill who does not know how to die well.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better then the bad.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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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?

– Seneca

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If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favourable to him.

– Seneca

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If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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If virtue precede us every step will be safe.

– Seneca

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It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity.

– Seneca

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It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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It is a youthful failing to be unable to control one's impulses.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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It is pleasant at times to play the madman.

– Seneca

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It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

– Seneca

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It is rash to condemn where you are ignorant.

– Seneca

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It is the sign of a weak mind to be unable to bear wealth.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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It should be our care not so much to live a long life as a satisfactory one.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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Life without the courage for death is slavery.

– Seneca

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Live among men as if God beheld you speak to God as if men were listening.

– Seneca

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Live with men as if God saw you converse with God as if men heard you.

– Seneca

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Many things have fallen only to rise higher.

– Seneca

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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

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

– Seneca

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Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.

– Seneca

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No evil is without its compensation. The less money, the less trouble the less favor, the less envy. Even in those cases which put us out of wits, it is not the loss itself, but the estimate of the loss that troubles us.

– Seneca

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No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.

– Seneca

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No one can wear a mask for very long.

– Seneca

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Not to feel one's misfortunes is not human, not to bear them in not manly.

– Seneca

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Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.

– Seneca

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Nothing is as certain as that the vices of leisure are gotten rid of by being busy.

– Seneca

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One hand washes the other.

– Seneca

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One hand washes the other. (Manus Manum Lavet)

– Seneca

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One should count each day a separate life.

– Seneca

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Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est. Translated: A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.

– Seneca

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Speech is the mirror of the mind.

– Seneca

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Speech is the mirror of the mind. (Imago Animi Sermo Est)

– Seneca

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Such as the chain of causes we call Fate, such is the chain of wishes: one links on to another; the whole man is bound in the chain of wishing for ever.

– Seneca

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The arts are the servant; wisdom its master.

– Seneca

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The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.

– Seneca

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The first step towards amendment is the recognition of error.

– Seneca

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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.

– Seneca

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The mind is slow to unlearn what it learnt early.

– Seneca

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The most onerous slavery is to be a slave to oneself.

– Seneca

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The path of precept is long, that of example short and effectual.

– Seneca

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The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed.

– Seneca

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There is a noble manner of being poor and who does not know it will never be rich.

– Seneca

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There is no great genius free from some tincture of madness.

– Seneca

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There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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This is the reason we cannot complain of life; it keeps no one against his wll.

– Seneca

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To be always fortunate, and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature.

– Seneca

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To be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.

– Seneca

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To see a man fearless in dangers, untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those things which are generally either coveted or feared; all men must acknowledge that this can be from nothing else but a beam of divinity that influences a mortal body.

– Seneca

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Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other.

– Seneca

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Truth never perishes (Veritas numquam perit).

– Seneca

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Unjust dominion cannot be eternal.

– Seneca

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We deliberate about the parcels of life, but not about life itself, and so we arrive all unawares at its different epochs, and have the trouble of beginning all again. And so finally it is that we do not walk as men confidently towards death, but let death come suddenly upon us.

– Seneca

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We most often go astray on a well trodden and much frequented road.

– Seneca

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We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it.

– Seneca

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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 abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

– Seneca

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Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool.

– Seneca

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What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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What once were vices are manners now.

– Seneca

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Where reason fails, time oft has worked a cure.

– Seneca

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Where the speech is corrupted, the mind is also.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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While the fates permit, live happily life speeds on with hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned.

– Seneca

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While we are postponing, life speeds by.

– Seneca

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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.

– Seneca

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Without an adversary prowess shrivels. We see how great and efficient it really is only when it shows by endurance what it is capable of.

– Seneca

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

– Seneca

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