Lucius Annaeus Seneca, (4 B.C.-A.D. 65) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, "Seneca the Younger" Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [61-90] of 117 Lucius Annaeus Seneca quotesLucius Annaeus Seneca QuotesLucius Annaeus Seneca Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough.~ 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 quality rather than quantity that matters.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca It is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca It would be some consolation for the feebleness of ourselves and our works, if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Just as an enemy is more dangerous to a retreating army, so every trouble that fortune brings attacks us all the harder if we yield and turn our backs.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Just as we suffer from excess in all things, so we suffer from excess in literature; thus we learn our lessons, not for life, but for the lecture room.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives and dies. It is just as possible for you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Man is a reasoning animal.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca My master Attalus used to say: "Evil herself drinks the largest portion of her own poison." The poison which serpents carry for the destruction of others, and secrete without harm to themselves, is not like this poison; for this sort is ruinous to the possessor.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca No man expects such exact fidelity as a traitor.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca No man is free who is a slave to the flesh. [Lat., Nemo liber est, qui corpori servit.]~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca No one is able to rule unless he is also able to be ruled.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Not lost, but gone before.~ 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 lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Of course, however, the living voice and the intimacy of a common life will help you more than the written word. You must go to the scene of action, first, because men put more faith in their eyes than in their ears, and second, because the way is long if one follows precepts, but short and helpful, if one follows patterns.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Our feeling about every obligation depends in each case upon the spirit in which the benefit is conferred; we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will which prompted it.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Remember, however, before all else, to strip things of all that disturbs and confuses, and to see what each is at bottom; you will then comprehend that they contain nothing fearful except the actual fear.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Should I be surprised that dangers which have always surrounded me should at last attack me? A great part of mankind, when about to sail, do not think of a storm. I shall never be ashamed of a reporter of bad news in a good cause.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca That most knowing of persons – gossip.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Previous 30 quotes Next 30 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print