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Lucius Annaeus Seneca [-5--65] Roman

Rank: 4
Statesman, Roman statesman

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
He was a tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero.

Anger, Nature, Courage, Health, Power, Wisdom, Birthday, Brainy, Fear, Great, Happiness, Knowledge, Life, Love, Men, Thankful, War, Age, Art, Business, Chance, Death, Freedom, Friendship, Future, God, Good, Hope, Imagination, Learning, Medical, Religion, Sad, Success, Sympathy, Time, Travel, Trust, Veterans Day, Work

Quote	Tags	Rank
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.	Friendship	2
No man was ever wise by chance.	Chance, Wisdom	102
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.	Future, Happiness	103
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.	Business	104
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.	Great	105
Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.	Men, Veterans Day, War	106
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.	Anger	107
True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.		108
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.		109
The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns.		110
The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.	Birthday, Death, Fear	111
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.		112
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.	God, Work	113
Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.	Health	114
If you wished to be loved, love.	Love	115
Love in its essence is spiritual fire.	Love	116
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.	Religion	117
Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.	Time, Travel	118
All cruelty springs from weakness.		119
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.		120
Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.		121
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.		122
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.	Freedom	123
The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember.		124
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.	Medical	125
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.	Birthday	126
Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.		201
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.	Brainy	202
Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.	Life	203
Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.		204
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.	Nature	205
A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.	Fear	206
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.		207
For greed all nature is too little.	Nature	208
It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.	Great, Knowledge	209
If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.		210
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.	Brainy	211
The wish for healing has always been half of health.	Health	212
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.		213
All art is but imitation of nature.	Art, Nature	214
While we are postponing, life speeds by.	Life	215
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.	Courage	216
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.		217
We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.	Imagination	218
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.		219
The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.	Good, Hope	220
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.		221
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.		222
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.	War	223
I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.	Trust	224
Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.		225
He who is brave is free.	Courage	226
The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances.		301
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.		302
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.		303
Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.		304
It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.		305
As long as you live, keep learning how to live.	Learning	306
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.		307
Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.		308
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.	Thankful	309
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.		310
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.		311
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.	Sad	312
He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.		313
Modesty forbids what the law does not.		314
The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin.	Knowledge	315
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.	Power	316
Every guilty person is his own hangman.		317
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.		318
When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.		319
Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.	Success	320
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.	Happiness, Wisdom	321
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.	Nature	322
Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders.	Age	323
It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, - superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.		324
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.		325
The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.		326
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.		401
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.		402
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.		403
Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.	Anger	404
Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.		405
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?		406
What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.		407
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.		408
The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.		409
We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.		410
So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.		411
May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.		412
I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.		413
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.		414
Time discovers truth.		415
A great mind becomes a great fortune.		416
Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.		417
He who has great power should use it lightly.	Power	418
The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.		419
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.		420
Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.		421
Life, if well lived, is long enough.		422
The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.		423
He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.		424
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.		425
Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.	Sympathy	426
When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.		501
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.		502
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.		503
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.		504
In war there is no prize for runner-up.		505
Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart.		506
There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.		507
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.		508
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.	Health, Thankful	509
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.	Anger	510
That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.		511
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.		512
No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.		513
Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.		514
It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.		515
No one is laughable who laughs at himself.		516
What is true belongs to me!		517
You learn to know a pilot in a storm.		518
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.		519
He that does good to another does good also to himself.		520
Where fear is, happiness is not.		521
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.		522
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.		523
Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.		524
Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.		525
If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.		526
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.	Courage	601
A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.		602
It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.		603
A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.		604
No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.		605
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.		606
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.		607
There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.		608
Every reign must submit to a greater reign.	Power	609
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.		610
No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.		611
The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.		612
Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.		613
The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.	Anger	614
One crime has to be concealed by another.		615
A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.		616
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.		617
Do everything as in the eye of another.		618
If you judge, investigate.		619
If you would judge, understand.		620
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.		621
To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.		622
That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.		623
Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.		624
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.		625
Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?		626
A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.	Anger	701
A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.		702
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.		703
For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.	Men	704
Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.		705
See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.		706
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.	Wisdom	707
Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.		708
One must steer, not talk.		709
Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.		710
Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.		711
Every sin is the result of a collaboration.		712
Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.		713
A great fortune is a great slavery.		714
Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.		715
There is no delight in owning anything unshared.		716
He has committed the crime who profits by it.		717
Life is warfare.		718
Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.		719
The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.		720
Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.		721
Whatever is well said by another, is mine.		722
You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.		723

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