Seneca quotes
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a statesman, playwright and adviser to Nero. His Letters to Lucilius turn Stoic ideas into practical advice on time, fear, anger, wealth and friendship.
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
“He who is brave is free.”
“Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
“If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
“All cruelty springs from weakness.”
“The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
“Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms - you'll be able to use them better when you're older.”
“While we wait for life, life passes.”
“No man was ever wise by chance.”
“The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today.”
“What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”
“A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.”
“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
“Only time can heal what reason cannot.”
“Life, if well lived, is long enough.”
“Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.”
“The willing are led by fate, the reluctant dragged.”
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”
“In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity.”
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.”
“It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.”
“Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.”
“There is no genius without a touch of madness.”
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”
“The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.”
“He who fears death will never do anything worthy of life.”
“Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.”
“A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.”
“True greatness is measured by how much freedom you give to others, not by how much you can take for yourself.”
“Refuse to let the judgment of others limit your potential.”
“If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich.”
“What fortune has made yours is not your own.”
“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have.”
“We should always allow some time to elapse, for time discloses the truth.”
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.”
“Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.”
“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.”
“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.”
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune.”
“True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man.”
“The mind, unless it is pure and holy, cannot see God.”
“God is near you, is with you, is inside you.”
“May be you are not in a position to control other people's behavior, but you are certainly in a position to control your own.”
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
“The sun also shines on the wicked.”
“Loyalty is the holiest good in the human heart.”
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
“Love of bustle is not industry.”
“All art is but imitation of nature.”
“Living is not the good, but living well.”
“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.”
“What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them.”
“It takes a very long time to become young.”
“That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.”
“The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself.”
“Leisure without study is death; it is a tomb for the living person.”
“Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.”
“He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.”
“We are bad men living among bad men, and only one thing can calm us: we must agree to go easy on one another.”
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
“We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.”
“In war there is no prize for runner-up.”
“The fates lead the willing and drag the unwilling.”
“A great fortune is a great slavery.”
“Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.”
“All is change; all yields its place and goes.”
“Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”
“The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. It is more powerful than external circumstances.”
“Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.”
“You should live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy as keep to yourself.”
“To wish to be well is part of becoming well.”
“Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.”
“Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”
“You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.”
“Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.”
“Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other.”
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
“There is no easy way from earth to stars.”
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
“What is true belongs to me!”
“We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passion opposed? What temptation resisted?”
“A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it.”
“Where reason and prudence dictate, ignorance and shamelessness demand.”
“Let tears flow of their own accord; their flowing is not inconsistent with inward peace and harmony.”
“Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son.”
“A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
“No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.”
“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
“Philosophy is good advice, and no one gives good advice at the top of his lungs.”
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
“Ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est.”
“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.”
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.”
“Human affairs are not so happily arranged that the best things please the most men.”
“To have may be taken from us, to have had, never.”
“I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.”
“Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.”
“The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.”
“Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.”
“I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other.”
“I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.”
“No one can be despised by another until he has learned to despise himself.”
“The wise man is self-sufficient. He can be happy alone.”
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”
“Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and self-same God.”
“Expect poison from standing water.”
“They who have light in themselves will not revolve as satellites.”
“Speech is the mirror of the mind.”
“Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.”
“There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.”
“He who spares the bad injures the good.”
“The poor lack much, but the greedy lack everything.”
“True love knows no measure, but knows how to measure all things.”
“The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.”
“Timendi causa est nescire - Ignorance is the cause of fear.”
“He who is everywhere is nowhere.”
“Wherever the storm carries me, I go a willing guest.”
“A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.”
“While the fates permit, live happily; life speeds on with hurried step.”
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”
“In war the path to safety lies in the wound.”
“Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.”
“Wherever there is danger, there lurks opportunity; whenever there is opportunity, there lurks danger.”
“The sun shines even on the wicked.”
“Throw aside fear; you will forge fear out of terror.”
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
“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.”
“Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare.”
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
“Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.”
“The ascent from earth to heaven is not easy.”
“Delay not till tomorrow what may be done today.”
More Stoic quotes:Marcus Aurelius · Epictetus