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Seneca quotes
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born in Cordoba around 4 BC, was exiled to Corsica, and came back to tutor and advise the young Nero. He died in AD 65 on Nero's orders. Quill quotes Aubrey Stewart's translations of Of Anger, On Benefits, Of Peace of Mind and Of the Shortness of Life, and Roger L'Estrange's freer seventeenth-century version of his morals.
Seneca praised plain living while being extremely rich, and readers have never let it go. He writes like someone arguing with himself about his own failings, and that's what makes him worth reading.
60 lines shown, from the 136 in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.
Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency
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What matters it how far Alexander extended his conquests, if he was not yet satisfied with what he had?
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… are achieved with labor, and the very guard of them is painful. Ambition puffs us up with vanity and wind: and we are equally troubled either to see any body before us, or nobody behind us; so that we lie under a double envy; for whosoever envies another is also envied himself. What matters it how far Alexander extended his conquests, if he was not yet satisfied with what he had? Every man wants as much as he covets; and it is lost labor to pour into a vessel that will never be full. He that had subdued so many princes and nations, upon the killing of Clytus (one friend) and the loss of Hyphestion (another) delivered himself up to anger and sadness; …
The plow goes on after a barren year: and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former.
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… such or such a man so much money: I would I had thrown it into the sea;” and yet the merchant trades again after a piracy, and the banker ventures afresh after a bad security. He that will do no good offices after a disappointment, must stand still, and do just nothing at all. The plow goes on after a barren year: and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former. What obligations can be greater than those which children receive from their parents? and yet should we give them over in their infancy, it were all to no purpose. Benefits, like grain, must be followed from the seed to the harvest. I will not so much as leave any place for …
We must keep on our course, if we would gain our journey’s end.
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… the heaviness of the heart; our vices go along with us, and we carry in ourselves the causes of our disquiets. There is a great weight lies upon us, and the bare shocking of it makes it the more uneasy; changing of countries, in this case, is not travelling, but wandering. We must keep on our course, if we would gain our journey’s end. “He that cannot live happily anywhere, will live happily nowhere.” What is a man the better for travelling? as if his cares could not find him out wherever he goes? Is there any retiring from the fear of death, or of torments? or from those difficulties which beset a man …
What we do is short, what we shall do is doubtful, but what we have done is certain, and out of the power of fortune.
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In the division of life, there is time present, past, and to come. What we do is short, what we shall do is doubtful, but what we have done is certain, and out of the power of fortune. The passage of time is wonderfully quick, and a man must look backward to see it; and, in that retrospect, he has all past ages at a view; but the present gives us the slip unperceived. It is but a moment that we live, and yet we are dividing it into childhood, youth, man’s …
Let us therefore prepare for a shipwreck in the port, and for a tempest in a calm.
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… peace we do the duty of men in war, and say to ourselves, Whatsoever may be, will be. I am to-day safe and happy in the love of my country; I am to-morrow banished: to-day in pleasure, peace, health; to-morrow broken upon a wheel, led in triumph, and in the agony of sickness. Let us therefore prepare for a shipwreck in the port, and for a tempest in a calm. One violence drives me from my country, another ravishes that from me; and that very place where a man can hardly pass this day for a crowd may be to-morrow a desert. Wherefore let us set before our eyes the whole condition of human nature, and consider as well what may happen …
What is it that we make all this bustle for, and so needlessly disquiet our minds?
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… much as dreaming of our weakness. Do we not know that these implacable enmities of ours lie at the mercy of a fever, or any petty accident, to disappoint? Our fate is at hand, and the very hour that we have set for another man’s death may peradventure be prevented by our own. What is it that we make all this bustle for, and so needlessly disquiet our minds? We are offended with our servants, our masters, our princes, our clients: it is but a little patience, and we shall be all of us equal; so that there is no need either of ambushes or of combats. Our wrath cannot go beyond death; and death will most undoubtedly come whether we …
All that lies betwixt the cradle and the grave is uncertain.
Reason deliberates before it judges; but anger passes sentence without deliberation.
People obey willingly where they are commanded kindly.
In time, the most stubborn grief will leave us, if in prudence we do not leave that first.
The comfort of life depends upon conversation.
Whatsoever is necessary, we must bear patiently.
Our time is set, and day and night we travel on.
Calamity is the occasion of virtue, and a spur to a great mind.
What is a man the better for travelling? as if his cares could not find him out wherever he goes?
Money never made any man rich; for the more he had, the more he still coveted.
We are loth to leave our possessions; and no man swims well with his luggage.
To what end do we toil, and labor, and pile bags upon bags?
Place me among princes or among beggars, the one shall not make me proud, nor the other ashamed.
We have lost one blessing, but we have many left; and shall not all these satisfactions support us against one sorrow?
Can there be any man so fearful, that had not rather fall once than hang always in suspense?
We carry our neighbors’ crimes in sight, and we throw our own over our shoulders.
Let us therefore make the best of our friends while we have them; for how long we shall keep them is uncertain.
Vain things only move vain minds.
Minor Dialogues and On Clemency
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How can you think that anything will not happen, when you know that it may happen to many men, and has happened to many?
Our inward thoughts gradually become influenced by our outward demeanour.
Men deserve praise for engaging in profitable studies, even though they stop short of producing any results.
Reflect that what you have had of him was most delightful, that your having lost him is an accident common to mankind.
Is any one surprised at being cold in winter? at being sick at sea? or at being jostled in the street?
The spirit ought to be brought up for examination daily.
Would not every man wish to lay aside anger when he sees that it begins by injuring himself?
Mankind is born for mutual assistance, anger for mutual ruin: the former loves society, the latter estrangement.
Revenge takes up much time, and throws itself in the way of many injuries while it is smarting under one.
Begin to reckon his age, not by years, but by virtues: he lived long enough.
Life, it is thanks to Death that I hold thee so dear.
Of Anger
Anger often comes to us, but we often go to it.
Have I less than I hoped for? well, perhaps I hoped for more than I ought.
Always believe that something will occur to offend you.
Life is a matter which does not admit of waste, and we have no spare time to throw away.
O, how clever is anger at inventing reasons for its frenzy!
The other vices move our minds; anger hurls them headlong.
On Benefits
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We shall never want a subject for complaint if we look at benefits on their wrong side.
We must not consider how great presents are, but in what spirit they are given.
All things greatly outgrow their beginnings.
The reward of honourable dealings lies in themselves.
Do not grow weary, perform your duty, and act as becomes a good man.
Of Providence
A gladiator deems it a disgrace to be matched with an inferior, and knows that to win without danger is to win without glory.
Familiarity with danger leads us to despise it.
Misfortunes press hardest on those who are unacquainted with them: the yoke feels heavy to the tender neck.
Is there any hard-working man to whom idleness is not a punishment?
Of the Shortness of Life
Whither are you looking, whither are you stretching forward? everything future is uncertain: live now straightway.
How late it is to begin life just when we have to be leaving it!
Life is long enough, if you know how to use it.
Of the Firmness of the Wise Man
The invulnerable is not that which is never struck, but that which is never wounded.
Can heights be reached by a level path?
On Clemency
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Magnanimity befits all mortal men, even the humblest of all; for what can be greater or braver than to resist ill fortune?
Of a Happy Life
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The hardness of flint is known to none so well as to those who strike it.
Of Peace of Mind
Often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age by which he can prove that he has lived a long time.
Of Consolation, to Helvia
Nothing is sufficient for covetous desire, but Nature can be satisfied even with scant measure.
Of Consolation, to Marcia
What tortures us, therefore, is an idea.
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