Seneca Quotes

Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman and dramatist (c. 4 BCE–65 CE)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC – A.D. 65), often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and humorist. He was the son of Seneca the Elder.

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Native Name: Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Alternative Names: Seneca the Younger • the Younger Seneca • Lucio Anneo Seneca • Annaeus Seneca • Lucius Annaeus Seneca minor • Lucius Annaeus Seneca Iunior • L. Annæus Seneca • Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger

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Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily; I can show you many objects the quest and acquisition of which have wrested freedom from our hands.

Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make crooked straight.

No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don't have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.

What is more affectionate to others than man? Yet what is more savage against them than anger?

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.

The mind must be indulged, and leisure must be given from time to time, which is the place of food and strength.

Nemo quam bene vivat sed quam diu curat, cum omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant, ut diu nulli.

Everything hangs on one’s thinking...A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.

It is not activity that makes men restless, but false conceptions of things render them mad.

For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.

How does it help...to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?