Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes II

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If you judge, investigate.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If you wished to be loved, love.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If you would judge, understand.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

In war there is no prize for runner-up.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca


It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Life is warfare.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Life, if well lived, is long enough.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Modesty forbids what the law does not.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No man was ever wise by chance.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca



Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

One crime has to be concealed by another.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

One must steer, not talk.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca