Seneca quotes - page 5

What fools these mortals be! (Seneca)
Of course, however, the living voice and the intimacy of a common life will help you more than the written word. You must go to the scene of action, first, because men put more faith in their eyes than in their ears, and second, because the way is long if one follows precepts, but short and helpful, if one follows patterns. View quote
Seneca
Who vaunts his race, lauds what belongs to others. View quote
Seneca
Growth is slow but collapse is rapid. View quote
Seneca
Why does God afflict the best of men with ill-health, or sorrow, or other troubles? Because in the army the most hazardous services are assigned to the bravest soldiers: a general sends his choicest troops to attack the enemy in a midnight ambuscade, to reconnoitre his line of march, or to drive the hostile garrisons from their strong places. No one of these men says as he begins his march, " The general has dealt hardly with me," but "He has judged well of me." View quote
Seneca
Pyrrhus: Mercy often means giving death, not life. View quote
Seneca
A good judge condemns wrongful acts, but does not hate them. View quote
Seneca
Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. View quote
Seneca
It would be some consolation for the feebleness of ourselves and our works, if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid. View quote
Seneca
Things 'twas hard to bear 'tis pleasant to recall. View quote
Seneca
Friendship is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm. (Seneca)
What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? View quote
Seneca
On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown. View quote
Seneca
Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends. View quote
Seneca
And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle. View quote
Seneca
If one doesn't know his mistakes, he won't want to correct them. View quote
Seneca
Should I be surprised that dangers which have always surrounded me should at last attack me? A great part of mankind, when about to sail, do not think of a storm. I shall never be ashamed of a reporter of bad news in a good cause. View quote
Seneca
My master Attalus used to say: "Evil herself drinks the largest portion of her own poison." The poison which serpents carry for the destruction of others, and secrete without harm to themselves, is not like this poison; for this sort is ruinous to the possessor. View quote
Seneca
Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation. View quote
Seneca
Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters. View quote
Seneca
Why then do you occupy me with the words rather than with the works of wisdom? Make me braver, make me calmer, make me the equal of Fortune, make me her superior. (Seneca)
Tell me what to avoid, what to seek, by what studies to strengthen my tottering mind, how I may rebuff the waves that strike me abeam and drive me from my course, by what means I may be able to cope with all my evils, and by what means I can be rid of the calamities that have plunged in upon me and those into which I myself have plunged. Teach me how to bear the burden of sorrow without a groan on my part, and how to bear prosperity without making others groan; also, how to avoid waiting for the ultimate and inevitable end, and to beat a retreat of my own free will, when it seems proper to me to do so. View quote
Seneca
Let words proceed as they please, provided only your soul keeps its own sure order, provided your soul is great and holds unruffled to its ideals, pleased with itself on account of the very things which displease others, a soul that makes life the test of its progress, and believes that its knowledge is in exact proportion to its freedom from desire and its freedom from fear. View quote
Seneca
They have been spoken by Plato, spoken by Zeno, spoken by Chrysippus or by Posidonius, and by a whole host of Stoics as numerous as excellent. I shall show you how men can prove their words to be their own: it is by doing what they have been talking about. View quote
Seneca
And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature. View quote
Seneca