Seneca

Hydra, Greece - 2007

1. ”A great mind becomes a great fortune.”
2. “A happy life is one which is in accord with its own nature.”
3. "A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners."
4. "All cruelty springs from weakness."
5. "Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
6. ”Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”
7. "Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall."
8. ”Anger, though concealed, is betrayed by the countenance. That anger is not warrantable which hath seen two suns.”
9. “Anyone can stop a man's life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.”
10. "A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand."
11. “A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party: there is no battle unless there be two.”
12. “As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.”
13. “A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them.”
14. ”As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
15. “As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.”
16. “Authority founded on injustice is never of long duration.”
17. “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
18. “Come now, don't you know that dying is also one of life's duties? Besides, since there's no fixed number of duties laid down which you're supposed to complete, you're leaving no duty undone. Every life is, without exception, a short one. As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is. It is not important at what point you end. End it wherever you will - only make sure that you end it up with a good ending.”
19. "Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them."
20. “Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.”
21. “Death is a punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.”
22. "Disease is not of the body but of the place."
23. "Do everything as in the eye of another."
24. "Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness."
25. "Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones."
26. "Eternal law has arranged nothing better than this, that it has given us one way in to life, but many ways out."
27. ”Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.”
28. “Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature.”
29. “Everything may happen.”
30. ”Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation, has an unstable foundation.”
31. ”Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.”
32. “From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.”
33. "He has committed the crime who profits by it."
34. ”He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.”
35. “He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decide justly, cannot be considered just.”
36. “He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.”
37. “He who has injured thee was either stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself.”
38. "He who repents of having sinned is almost innocent."
39. “I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.”
40. “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
41. "If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail."
42. “If thou live according to nature, thou wilt never be poor; if according to the opinions of the world, thou wilt never be rich.”
43. “If wisdom were offered me with this restriction, that I should keep it close and not communicate it, I would refuse the gift.”
44. “If you are wise,
You will mingle one thing with the other-
Not hoping without doubt;
Not doubting without hope.”
45. “If you judge, investigate.”
46. “If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich.”
47. “If you wished to be loved, love.”
48. “If you wish to fear nothing, consider that everything is to be feared.”
49. "If you judge, investigate."
50. "If you would judge, understand."
51. “In the case of a grown man who has made incontestable progress it is disgraceful to go hunting after gems of wisdom, and prop himself up with a minute number of the best-known sayings, and be dependent on his memory as well; it is time he was standing on his own feet. / He should be delivering himself of such sayings, not memorizing them. It is disgraceful that a man who is old or in sight of old age should have a wisdom deriving solely from his notebook. / "Zeno said this." And what have you said? "Cleanthes said that." What have you said? How much longer are you going to serve under others' orders? Assume authority yourself and utter something that may be handed down to posterity. Produce something from your own resources.”
52. “It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.”
53. “It is extreme evil to depart from the company of the living before you die.”
54. ”It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
55. "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."
56. ”It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.”
57. "It is part of the cure to wish to be cured."
58. “It is the nature of a great mind to be calm and undisturbed.”
59. "It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin."
60. “Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.”
61. "Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive".
62. "Leisure without literature is death and burial alive."
63. “Let tears flow of their own accord: their flowing is not inconsistent with inward peace and harmony.”
64. “Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.”
65. "Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands."
66. “Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”
67. "Life isn't about finding youself. Life is about creating yourself."
68. “Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.”
69. “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.”
70. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
71. “Many have reached their fate while dreading fate.”
72. “Men learn while they teach.”
73. "Modesty forbids what the law does not."
74. “Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
75. “Men trust rather to their eyes than to their ears. The effect of precepts is, therefore, slow and tedious, while that of examples is summary and effectual.”
76. “Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.”
77. “Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.”
78. “No man was ever wise by chance.”
79. “No one becomes guilty by fate.”
80. "No one can be despised by another until he has learned to despise himself."
81. “Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.”
82. "Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes."
83. “Omnio fieri possent (Everything may happen).”
84. "One crime has to be concealed by another."
85. "Other men's sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs."
86. “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When you don't know what harbor you're aiming for, no wind is the right wind.”
87. “Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.”
88. “Solitude and company may be allowed to take their turns: the one creates in us the love of mankind, the other that of ourselves; solitude relieves us when we are sick of company, and conversation when we are weary of being alone, so that the one cures the other. There is no man so miserable as he that is at a loss how to use his time.”
89. “Some there are that torment themselves afresh with the memory of what is past; others, again, afflict themselves with the apprehension of evils to come; and very ridiculously both - for the one does not now concern us, and the other not yet ... One should count each day a separate life.”
90. "Sovereignty over any foreign land is insecure."
91. ”Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.”
92. “That day which you fear as being the end of all things is the birthday of your eternity.”
93. "The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger."
94. “The evil which assails us is not in the localities we inhabit but in ourselves. We lack strength to endure the least task, being incapable of suffering pain, powerless to enjoy pleasure, impatient with everything. How many invoke death when, after having tried every sort of change, they find themselves reverting to the same sensations, unable to discover any new experience.”
95. “The first proof of a well-ordered mind is to be able to pause and linger within itself.”
96. "The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
97. “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
98. “The hour which gives us life begins to take it away.”
99. "The mind is a matter over every kind of fortune; itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and misery."
100. "The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable."
101. “The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.”
102. “The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”
103. "There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality."
104. “There are no greater wretches in the world than many of those whom people in general take to be happy.”
105. “There has never been any great genius without a spice of madness.”
106. “There is no great genius free from some tincture of madness.”
107. "The sun also shines on the wicked."
108. “The sun shines even on the wicked.”
109. “The time that precedes punishment is the severest part of it.”
110. “The way to wickedness is always through wickedness.”
111. ”Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.”
112. ”This body is not a home but an inn, and that only briefly.”
113. "Those who boast of their decent, brag on what they owe to others."
114. “Those who have the light in themselves will not revolve like satellites.”
115. “Time discovers truth.”
116. “Time heals what reason cannot.”
117. "To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself."
118. “To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.”
119. "True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not."
120. “True love hates and will not bear delay.”
121. "What is true belongs to me!"
122. “What with our hooks, snares, nets, and dogs, we are at war with all living creatures, and nothing comes amiss but that which is either too cheap or too common; and all this is to gratify a fantastical palate.”
123. “We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
124. ”We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
125. “We are more wicked together than separately. If you are forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself.”
126. “We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.”
127. "Whatever is well said by another, is mine."
128. "What once were vices are manners now."
129. “When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
130. "Where the fear is, happiness is not."
131. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”
132. “While we teach, we learn.”
133. "Who can hope for nothing, should despair for nothing."
134. “Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.”
135. “Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life--in a firmness of mind and mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as to talk; and to make our actions and words all of a color.”