Seneca Quotes

Resistance to oppression is second nature.

If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.

Who needs forgiveness, should the same extend with readiness.

A young man respects and looks up to his teachers.

Human society is like an arch, kept from falling by the mutual pressure of its parts

Life is divided into three periods: that which has been, that which is, that which will be. Of these the present is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain.

I shall never be ashamed to quote a bad author if what he says is good.

The bounty of nature is too little for the greedy person.

It is expedient for the victor to wish for peace restored; for the vanquished it is necessary.

Let us not seek our disease out of ourselves; 'tis in us, and planted in our bowels; and the mere fact that we do not perceive ourselves to be sick, renders us more hard to be cured.

Slavery holds few men fast; the greater number hold fast their slavery.

Happy he whoe'er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to the land.

It is sweet to mingle tears with tears; Griefs, where they wound in solitude, Wound more deeply.

Light griefs do speak, while sorrow's tongue is bound.

No emotion falls into dislike so readily as sorrow.

Nobody will keep the thing he hears to himself, and nobody will repeat just what he hears and no more.

Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.

We are more wicked together than separately. If you are forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself.

Auditur et altera pars. (The other side shall be heard as well.)

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

It is easier to grow in dignity than to make a start.

Tis not the belly's hunger that costs so much, but its pride

No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another, if thou wishest to live for thyself.

Money has yet to make anyone rich.

Unjust rule does not last forever.

Whatever we owe, it is our part to find where to pay it, and to do it without asking, too; for whether the creditor be good or bad, the debt is still the same.

Dignity increases more easily than it begins.

The proper amount of wealth is that which neither descends to poverty nor is far distant from it.

The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.

A great step towards independence is a good-humored stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.

The origin of all mankind was the same; it is only a clear and good conscience that makes a man noble, for that is derived from heaven itself.

Anger is like a ruin, which, in falling upon its victim, breaks itself to pieces.

He that lays down precepts for the governing of our lives, and moderating our passions, obliges humanity not only in the present, but in all future generations.

We are at best but stewards of what we falsely call our own; yet avarice is so insatiable that it is not in the power of liberality to content it.

Home joys are blessed of heaven.

Consider an enemy may become a friend.

Dissembling profiteth nothing; a feigned countenance, and slightly forged externally, deceiveth but very few.

If you will fear nothing, think that all things are to be feared.

We are as answerable for what we give as for what we receive; nay, the misplacing of a benefit is worse than the not receiving of it; for the one is another person's fault, but the other is mine.

The law of the pleasure in having done anything for another is, that the one almost immediately forgets having given, and the other remembers eternally having received.

There is as much greatness of mind in the owning of a good turn as in the doing of it; and we must no more force a requital out of season than be wanting in it.

Haste trips up its own heels, fetters and stops itself.

It is by the benefit of letters that absent friends are in a manner brought together.

You find in some a sort of graceless modesty, that makes them ashamed to requite an obligation.

That comes too late that comes for the asking.

To give and to lose is nothing; but to lose and to give still is the part of a great mind.

The most happy ought to wish for death.

The way to wickedness is always through wickedness.