Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A great fortune is a great slavery.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A great mind becomes a great fortune.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

All art is but imitation of nature.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

All cruelty springs from weakness.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca


As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Behold a worthy sight, to which the God, turning his attention to his own work, may direct his gaze. Behold an equal thing, worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with evil fortune.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Do everything as in the eye of another.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Every guilty person is his own hangman.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Every reign must submit to a greater reign.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Every sin is the result of a collaboration.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca


Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

For greed all nature is too little.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He has committed the crime who profits by it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He that does good to another does good also to himself.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He who has great power should use it lightly.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

He who is brave is free.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I don't consider myself bald, I'm just taller than my hair.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?
Lucius Annaeus Seneca