Seneca Quotes

Leve aes alienum debitorem facit, grave inimicum.

One who asks fearfully teaches us to say no.

Sooner will grief unite us with the dead than bring them back to us.

Everything of this sort is not anger, but the semblance of anger, like that of boys who want to beat the ground when they have fallen upon it, and who often do not even know why they are angry, but are merely angry without any reason or having received any injury, yet not without some semblance of injury received, or without some wish to exact a penalty for it.

Magna servitus est magna fortuna.

Friendship is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm

Amicitia semper prodest, amor aliquando etiam nocet

He is a great man who uses earthenware dishes as if they were silver; but he is equally great who uses silver as if it were earthenware.

Not lost, but gone before.

"What," say you, "are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have leisure to reform other men?" No, I am not so shameless as to undertake to cure my fellow-men when I am ill myself. I am, however, discussing with you troubles which concern us both, and sharing the remedy with you, just as if we were lying ill in the same hospital.

Why should I not regard this as desirable—not because the fire, burns me, but because it does not overcome me?

Nothing is so certain as that the evils of idleness can be shaken off by hard work.

Octavia lost Marcellus, whom both his father-in-law and his uncle had begun to depend upon, and to place upon his shoulders the weight of the empire — a young man of keen intelligence and firm character, frugal and moderate in his desires to an extent which deserved especial admiration in one so young and so wealthy, strong to endure labour, averse to indulgence, and able to bear whatever burden his uncle might choose to lay, or I may say to pile upon his shoulders. Augustus had well chosen him as a foundation, for he would not have given way under any weight, however excessive.

Much must also be withdrawn into oneself: for a well-composed conversation of differences disturbs and renews the affections, and infuriates whatever is weak in the mind and has not been cared for...
Loneliness will cure the hatred of the crowd, the boredom of solitude will be cured by the crowd.
... A certain dullness and languor of the mind is born from constant toil.
...Nor would the desire of men so much tend to this, unless play and fun had a kind of natural voluptuousness. The frequent use of which will relieve all the weight of the soul and all the vigor.
For sleep is also necessary for refreshment, but if you continue it day and night, death will result.

Let us not postpone anything, let us engage in combats with life each day.