Seneca Quotes

“Ronan's smile was sharp and hooked as one of the creature's claws. "'A sword is never a killer; it is a tool in the killer's hand'."

"I can't believe Noah didn't stick around to help."

"Sure you can. Never trust the dead.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“What is harder than rock? What is softer than water? Yet hard rocks are hollowed out by soft water?”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Natural Questions

“The willing are led by fate, the reluctant are dragged.”
― Cleanthes of Assos, Hymn to Zeus

“distringit librorum multitudo

(the abundance of books is distraction)”
― Seneca

“A good person dyes events with his own color . . . and turns whatever happens to his own benefit.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Retire into yourself as much as you can. Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people's opinions, you will never be rich.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Huius (sapientis) opus unum est de divinis humanisque verum invenire; ab hac numquam recedit religio, pietas, iustitia ...”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“You have buried someone you loved. Now look for someone to love. It is better to make good the loss of a friend than to cry over him.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“... for life itself is slavery if the courage to die be absent...”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“While other people are snatched away from us, we are being filched away surreptitiously from ourselves.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Quanto potius, deorum opera celebrare quam Philippi aut Alexandri latrocinia...”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“We who are recovering from a prolonged spiritual sickness are in the same condition as invalids who have been affected to such an extent by prolonged indisposition that they cannot once be taken out of doors without ill effects.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Having in mind not how bravely I was capable of dying but how far from bravely he was capable of bearing the loss, I commanded myself to live. There are times when even to live is an act of bravery.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“It matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is”
― Seneca

“Perchance some day the memory of this sorrow Will even bring delight”
― Seneca

“You will come to your own when you shall understand that those whom the world calls fortunate are really the most unfortunate of all”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“At its core, Stoicism, like the sturdy oak tree, stands firm amidst the torrential downpour of life’s distractions. It teaches us that while we may not command the winds to change, we possess the power to adjust our sails, to guide our minds through the tumultuous sea of life’s happenings.”
― Kevin L. Michel, The Power of the Present: A Stoic's Guide to Unyielding Focus

“Ernest Hemingway wrote that happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing. However, if we are intelligent yet unhappy, then perhaps we are not intelligent enough. Socrates, Seneca, and Epictetus were intelligent enough to find happiness and contentment—even while drinking hemlock, cutting their veins, or living as crippled slaves.”
― Giannis Delimitsos

“Seneca'nın bir mektubundan: "Deli kadın kör olduğunu anlamıyor ve benim evimin karanlık olduğunu ileri sürerek, kendisini başka yere götürmesini istiyor yöneticisinden ikide bir. Onun bu durumuna gülüyoruz; ama inan bana ki hepimizin düştüğü bir durumdur bu: Kimse cimri olduğunu, kıskanç olduğunu kabul etmez. Körler hiç olmazsa bir yol gösterici isterler; biz kendi kendimizi sokarız yanlış yollara. Benim yükseklerde gözüm yoktur, ama Roma'da başka türlü yaşanmaz, deriz; öfkeliysem, güvenli bir hayat kuramadıysam suç bende değil, gençlikte deriz. Dışımızda aramayalım kötülüğü, içimizdedir o; ciğerimize işlemiştir. Hasta olduğumuzu bilmemek de iyileşmemizi daha zorlaştırır. Kendimizi erkenden bilmeye başlamazsak, nasıl başederiz bunca dertlerle, bunca kötülüklerle? Oysa felsefe gibi çok tatlı bir ilacımız da var. Öteki ilaçları ancak bizi iyileştirirlerse hoş buluruz; felsefe ise hem hoşlandırır, hem iyileştirir bizi.”
― Montaigne

“I would not venture as yet to assure you, or even to hope, that there is nothing left in me needing to be changed.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“A person who starts being friends with you because it pays him will similarly cease to be friends because it pays him to do so.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“Cruzarei o oceano, se nada me impedir.”
― Seneca

“Pretense is of no avail. Few are deceived by the face that is just painted on: one's true identity goes straight to the core. Deceits have nothing solid about them. A lie is a tenuous thing, and on inspection, transparent.”
― Margaret Graver, Seneca: Fifty Letters of a Roman Stoic

“He is a slave.'' But shall that stand in his way?
Show me a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to ambition, and all men are slaves to fear.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic (Collins Classics) Paperback – 17 September 2020

“If you set a high value on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic (Collins Classics) Paperback – 17 September 2020

“When men have begun to desire all things in opposition to the ways of nature, they end up by entirely abandoning the ways of nature”
― Seneca, Letters From A Stoic | Moral Letters To Lucilius

“Apressa-te a viver, caro Lucílio, imagina que cada dia é uma vida completa.”
― Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

“You cease to be afraid when you cease to hope, for hope is accompanied by fear,”
― Seneca