Seneca quotes - page 24

This life is only a prelude to eternity. (Seneca)
The evil which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. View quote
Seneca
He that visits the sick in hopes of a legacy, but is never so friendly in all other cases, I look upon him as being no better than a raven that watches a weak sheep only to peck out its eyes. View quote
Seneca
Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance. View quote
Seneca
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. View quote
Seneca
Life is neither a good nor an evil it is simply the place where good and evil exist. View quote
Seneca
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. View quote
Seneca
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. View quote
Seneca
The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest. View quote
Seneca
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. View quote
Seneca
In every good man a God doth dwell. (Seneca)
Non scholae, sed vitae discimus. View quote
Seneca
Mens impudicam facere, non casus, solet. View quote
Seneca
... the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent's fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary's charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever. View quote
Seneca
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. View quote
Seneca
I may become a poor man; I shall then be one among many. I may be exiled; I shall then regard myself as born in the place to which I shall be sent. They may put me in chains. What then? Am I free from bonds now? Behold this clogging burden of a body, to which nature has fettered me! "I shall die,” you say; you mean to say "I shall cease to run the risk of sickness; I shall cease to run the risk of imprisonment; I shall cease to run the risk of death.”. View quote
Seneca
Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself. View quote
Seneca
If you see a man who is unterrified in the midst of dangers, untouched by desires, happy in adversity, peaceful amid the storm, who looks down upon men from a higher plane, and views the gods on a footing of equality, will not a feeling of reverence for him steal over you, will you not say: "This quality is too great and too lofty to be regarded as resembling this petty body in which it dwells? A divine power has descended upon that man.”. View quote
Seneca
Is qui scit plurimum, rumor. View quote
Seneca
Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives and dies. It is just as possible for you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave. View quote
Seneca
"He is a slave.” His soul, however, may be that of a freeman. "He is a slave.” But shall that stand in his way? Show me a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear. (Seneca)
Seneca is here describing arguments used by 'certain men,' not stating his own opinion. View quote
Seneca
It is to this law that our souls must adjust themselves, this they should follow, this they should obey. Whatever happens, assume that it was bound to happen, and do not be willing to rail at Nature. That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure, and to attend uncomplainingly upon the God under whose guidance everything progresses; for it is a bad soldier who grumbles when following his commander. View quote
Seneca
Compare with the following : No man ruleth safely but that he is willingly ruled. View quote
Seneca
By Hercules, the state would have sustained a great loss if you had not brought him forth from the oblivion to which his two splendid qualities, eloquence and independence, had consigned him: he is now read, is popular, is received into men's hands and bosoms, and fears no old age: but as for those who butchered him, before long men will cease to speak even of their crimes, the only things by which they are remembered. View quote
Seneca