Seneca the Elder Quotes

What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you.

If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him.

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

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.

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

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed! What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired?

The courts of kings are full of people, but empty of friends.

The mind is slow to unlearn what it learnt early.

What is the proper limit for wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary; and, second, to have what is enough.

If you want to be loved, love.

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

He who looks for advantage out of friendship strips it all of its nobility.

It is wrong not to give a hand to the fallen. This right is common to the whole human race.

Unhappy is the man, though he rule the world, who doesn't consider himself supremely blessed. In order to consider himself supremely blessed he must deeply understand that things could be much worse but aren't! To not do that is to always be less happy than he could be.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

No one is better born than another, unless they are born with better abilities and a more amiable disposition.

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

Add each day something to fortify you against poverty and death.

Failure changes for the better, success for the worse.

When in fear, it is safest to force the attack.

The road to learning by precept is long, but by example short and effective.

If you wish to fear nothing, consider that everything is to be feared.

Fortune reveres the brave, and overwhelms the cowardly.

All art is an imitation of nature.