Seneca Quotes

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

Add quote

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.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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

From Wikidata (CC0)

Showing quotes in randomized order to avoid selection bias. Click Popular for most popular quotes.

Dumb creatures have not human feelings, but have certain impulses which resemble them: for if it were not so, if they could feel love and hate, they would likewise be capable of friendship and enmity, of disagreement and agreement. Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the human breast alone.

What I advise you to do is no to be unhappy before the crisis comes.

He who indulges in empty fears earns himself real fears.

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

Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

It is a vast kingdom, to be able to cope without a kingdom.

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

He who, when he may, forbids not sin, commands it.

Aren't you ashamed to keep for yourself just the remnants...to devote to wisdom only that time which can't be spent on business?

Would not anyone who is a man have his slumbers broken by a war-trumpet rather than by a chorus of serenaders?

Much must also be withdrawn into oneself: for a well-composed conversation of differences disturbs and renews the affections, and infuriates whatever is weak in the mind and has not been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.

“What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind.

You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.

A thatched roof once covered free men; under marble and gold dwells slavery.