Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes

I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.

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

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

The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

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

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

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

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

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

There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

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

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

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.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

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

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.

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

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.

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.

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

Every guilty person is his own hangman.

True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.

There is no delight in owning anything unshared.

Where fear is, happiness is not.

It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.

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

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

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

Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.

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.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.

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

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

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

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

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

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.

The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.

If you would judge, understand.

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