Seneca phrases, thoughts on life, aphorisms on time, famous quotes about death, related to this Roman philosopher and politician, considered among the main exponents of the eclectic stoicism typical of the imperial age.
Quotes of Seneca
- I am too great and too superior is the destiny for which I was born, so that I can remain a slave to my body.
- Those who wait for tomorrow without worry are truly happy and self-possessed; who says every day: "I lived" and being able to get up in the morning appears to him as a gain.
- Philosophy neither rejects nor prefers anyone: it shines at all.
- There are more things that scare us than those that actually threaten us, and we often suffer more from our fears than from reality.
- With a friend you calmly decide everything, but first you decide if it is a friend: once you have made friends, you have to trust; first, though, you have to decide if it's true friendship.
- Those who accept a benefit with a grateful soul pay the first installment of their debt.
- Wrath: an acid that can cause more damage to the container that contains it than to anything on which it is poured.
- The loved one whom we believe is extinct is not dead, he just preceded us.
- It is more the things that frighten us than those that actually hurt, and we are troubled more for appearances than for real facts.
- Are you asking me what freedom is? Don't be a slave to anyone, no need, no accident, and keep your luck close at hand.
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- You ask me what has been my progress? I started to be friends with myself.
- He who is a slave to his own body is not free.
- Part of the time we take it out of our hands, part they take it away gently, and part it slips away without us noticing.
- As we waste our time between delays and postponements, life passes.
- Only the wise man is happy with his things; fools, on the other hand, are tormented by self-loathing.
- Who is a friend loves, but who loves is not always a friend; and therefore friendship always benefits, love, however, can sometimes even harm.
- You will cease to fear if you have ceased to hope.
- Nobody is old enough to not hope for another day of life. And one day is a moment in life.
- Passions are unable to serve or to command.
- From a big man there is something to learn even when he is silent.
- By far the hardest thing is to win yourself.
- Live with men as if God saw you; speak to God as if men heard you.
- Forgive many things to others; nothing to yourself.
- So many servants, as many enemies.
- We are not afraid of death, but the thought of death.
Seneca's aphorisms
- Here's a great thing: having the weakness of a man and the tranquility of a god.
- Do not believe that one can become happy by procuring the unhappiness of others.
- To command does not mean to dominate, but to perform a duty.
- We must live with this conviction: I was not born to be in my corner, my homeland is the whole world.
- He who offends you is more powerful or weaker than you: if he is weaker, spare him, if he is more powerful, save yourself.
- What you want another to keep silent, be the first to keep silent.
- Defects are like enemies that turn around and attack you suddenly, against which you cannot always be ready as in war, but not as calm as in peace.
- Man is a social animal. People are not made to live alone.
- Destiny accompanies those who agree, drags those who resist.
- Here is our mistake: we see death in front of us and instead much of it is already behind us: past life belongs to death.
- A great fortune is a great slavery.
- Religion is regarded by ordinary people as true, by wise people as false, and by rulers as useful.
- You will never be happy until another annoys you that he is happier than you.
- If we look at a perfectly straight piece of wood, immersed in water, it seems curved and broken. It doesn't matter what you look at, but how you look: our mind darkens in scrutinizing the truth.
- Learn to please yourself.What you think of yourself is far more important than what others think of you.
- Create only positive thoughts and actions around you.
- Life is divided into three moments: past, present, future. Of these, the moment we are living is short, what we still have to live is not sure, what we have already experienced is certain.
- Poor is not who has little, but who wants more.
- We fear everything as mortal, but we want everything as if we were immortal.
- The only good is honesty, the others are fake and fictitious goods.
- If you want to feel rich, count the things you don't own and that money can't buy.
- Those who are feared fear: those who are the object of fear of others cannot be comfortable.
- The biggest thing is to know when to speak and when to shut up.
- A hungry people do not listen to reasons, nor do they care about justice and no prayer can convince them.
- Uncertain evils are the ones that torment us most.
Seneca phrases
- Nobody can live happy if he cares only for himself, if he turns everything to his own benefit: you have to live for others, if you want to live for yourself.
- Life is like a story: what matters is not its length, but its importance.
- The way to learn is long if you proceed by rules, short and effective if you proceed by examples.
- The most powerful man is the one who owns himself.
- The woman whose legs or arms are praised is not beautiful, but the one whose beauty as a whole distracts from admiring the individual parts.
- Even if the fear will have more arguments, choose hope and put an end to your anguish.
- We do not suffer, in fact, from the lack of these goods, but from the thought of their lack. Who has possession of himself has not lost anything: but how many are lucky enough to possess themselves?
- We should call ourselves to account every night: What weakness did I overcome today? What passion did I oppose? What temptation did I resist? What virtues have I acquired?
- Extremely short and troubled is the life of those who forget the past, neglect the present, fear the future: having reached the extreme moment, late they understand that they have been busy for a long time without concluding anything.
- Luck does not exist: there is a moment when talent meets opportunity.
- Do not be afraid of pain, it will either end or end there.
- It is not true that we have little time: the truth is that we lose a lot of time.
- The one who could not heal reason has often healed time.
- This is the only reason we cannot complain about life: it does not hold anyone back.
- We should give as we would like to receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; because there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
- Shame forbids what the law does not prohibit.
- Often in judging a thing we let ourselves be dragged more by the opinion than by the true substance of the thing itself.
- We have before us the vices of others, while ours are behind us.
- Just as I will choose my ship when I go on a trip, or my home when I intend to take up a residence, so I will choose my death when I am going to abandon life.
- No good thing to own if you don't have friends to share it with!
- If they offered me the wisdom on the condition of keeping it for me, without communicating it to anyone, I would not want it.
- I will show you a love filter without poisons, without herbs, without magic formulas: if you want to be loved, love!
- It takes a lifetime to learn to live and, what may seem stranger, it takes a lifetime to learn to die.
- It is the soul you need to change, not the sky you live under.
- There is no favorable wind for the sailor who does not know where to go.
