Best 30 quotes of Lucius Annaeus Seneca on MyQuotes

And so when you see a man often wearing the robe of office, when you see one whose name is famous in the Forum, do not envy him; those things are bought at the price of life. They will waste all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned by their name.

A woman is not beautiful when her ankle or arm wins compliments, but when her total appearance diverts admiration from the individual parts of her body.

Cling, therefore, to this sound and wholesome plan of life; indulge the body just so far as suffices for good health. ... Your food should appease your hunger, your drink quench your thirst, your clothing keep out the cold, your house be a protection against inclement weather. It makes no difference whether it is built of turf or variegated marble imported from another country: what you have to understand is that thatch makes a person just as good a roof as gold.

For what prevents us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free, lofty, fearless and steadfast - a mind that is placed beyond the reach of fear, beyond the reach of desire, that counts virtue the only good, baseness the only evil, and all else but a worthless mass of things, which come and go without increasing or diminishing the highest good, and neither subtract any part from the happy life nor add any part to it? A man thus grounded must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no joys greater than his inner joys.

However much you possess there's someone else who has more, and you'll be fancying yourself to be short of things you need to exact extent to which you lag behind him.

It is a great man that can treat his earthenware as if it was silver, and a man who treats his silver as if it was earthenware is no less great.

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

It is uncertain where Death will await you; there expect it everywhere.

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

It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and--what will perhaps make you wonder more--it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.

Maximum remedium est irae mora.

Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly, and nothing need arouse one's irritation so long as one doesn't make it bigger than it is by getting irritated.

Nūllum magnum ingenium sine mixtūrā dēmentiae fuit No great talent without an element of madness

One hand washes the other. (Manus Manum Lavat)

Philosophy calls for simple living, not for doing penance, and the simple way of life need not be a crude one.

Preserve a sense of proportion in your attitude to everything that pleases you, and make the most of them while they are at their best.

Qui mori didicit servire dedidicit.

Regard [a friend] as loyal, and you will make him loyal.

Spurn everything that is added by way of decoration and display by unneccesary labour. Relect that nothing merits admiration except the spirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything.

The boon that could be given can be withdrawn.

The part of life we really live is small.' For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.

There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with

The road is long if one proceeds by way of precepts but short and effectual if by way of personal example.

Timendi causa est nescire - Ignorance is the cause of fear.

To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

To expect punishment is to suffer it; and to earn it is to expect it.

What fortune has made yours is not your own.

When a mind is impressionable and has none too firm a hold on what is right, it must be rescued from the crowd: it is so easy for it to go over to the majority.

Words need to be sown like seeds. No matter how tiny a seed may be, when in lands in the right sort of ground it unfolds its strength and from being minute expands and grows to a massive size.

You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.