Lucius Annaeus Seneca

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

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

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

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

There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters.

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Time discovers truth.

There's one blessing only, the source and cornerstone of beatitude: confidence in self.

A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.

Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.

No man was ever wise by chance.

There is no delight in owning anything unshared.

Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.

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

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

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

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

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

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.

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

The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.

Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.

It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness and prefer things in measure to things in excess.

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns.

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

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

True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

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

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

If you judge, investigate.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

For greed all nature is too little.

If you would judge, understand.

One must steer, not talk.

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

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

Slavery takes hold of few but many take hold of slavery.

Where fear is, happiness is not.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

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

Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

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

Brave men rejoice in adversity just as brave soldiers triumph in war.

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

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

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

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

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.

A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.

No man ever became wise by chance.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Every guilty person is his own hangman.

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.

The wish for healing has always been half of health.

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

It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.

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

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.

The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

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

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.

Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.

True happiness is... to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future.

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.

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

Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

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

The much occupied man has no time for wantonness and it is an obvious commonplace that the evils of leisure can be shaken off by hard work.

A cruel reign is disordered and hidden in darkness, and while all shake with terror at the sudden explosions, not even he who caused all this disturbance escapes unharmed.

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

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.

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.

Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.

To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

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.