Author
Seneca
Roman statesman whose letters and essays turn Stoic principles toward grief, anger, money, and the use of time.
396 passages
- Acceptance A calm mind in adversity strips misfortune of much of its force and weight.
- Courage A king may be killed by a slave, or a serpent, or an arrow: but no one can be saved except by some one who is greater…
- Purpose A life without an aim wanders. Once an aim is set, principles are required; otherwise conduct becomes hesitant,…
- Justice A person's character is their own; titles and offices are handed out by chance. Welcome some because they deserve it,…
- Justice A prince generally inflicts punishment for one of two reasons: he wishes either to assert his own rights or those of…
- Justice A tyrant differs from a king in deeds, not in title: for the elder Dionysius deserves to be preferred before many…
- Mortality A very small amount of it, therefore, is abundantly sufficient, and so, when his last day arrives, the wise man will…
- Wisdom Above all, measure yourself truthfully, since we usually imagine ourselves capable of more than we are.
- Temperance Accustom yourself to meals without display, fewer attendants, clothing for use, and a humbler home.
- Wisdom Add to this that, according to the doctrine of Chrysippus, a man may live at leisure: I do not say that he ought to…
- Acceptance All life is slavery: let each man therefore reconcile himself to his lot, complain of it as little as possible, and…
- Discipline All our senses should be educated into strength: they are naturally able to endure much, provided that the spirit…
- Courage Am I to expect that evil speaking will respect anything, seeing that it respected neither Rutilius nor Cato? Will any…
- Wisdom Among these and in the first place must be ranked that thrill of the mind which seizes us at the thought of…
- Purpose An old person often has no proof of a long life except the count of years.
- Courage Anger is of use to lions, timidity to stags, boldness 92to hawks, flight to doves. What if I declare that it is not…
- Temperance Anger makes many men cripples, or invalids, even when it meets with an unresisting victim: and besides this, no…
- Control Anger must not merely move, but break out of bounds, being an impulse: now, no impulse can take place without the…
- Courage “Anger,” says Aristotle, “is necessary, nor can any fight be won without it, unless it fills the mind, and kindles up…
- Temperance Anger, then, must never become a habit with us, but we may sometimes affect to be angry when we wish to rouse up the…
- Wisdom Anger, therefore, is not useful even in wars or battles: for it is prone to rashness, and while trying to bring others…
- Temperance Anger tramples self-restraint underfoot, steeps its hands in slaughter, scatters abroad the limbs of its children: it…
- Wisdom Are you not embarrassed to give wisdom only the scraps of life that business has not consumed?
- Courage As Cicero observed, we dislike fighters who cling to life by any means and admire those who meet danger without…
- Control At the same time he reflects that all men are too low to venture to look down upon what is so far above them.
- Wisdom Atreus: Who would refuse fortune's overflowing gifts? Thyestes: One who knows how swiftly they can be withdrawn.
- Wisdom Be assured that the same rule applies both to public and private life: simple and manageable undertakings proceed…
- Justice Be assured that the same thing would be the case if no one’s offence is pardoned: it will quickly be discovered how…
- Wisdom Be assured, when you see the Forum crowded with a multitude, 83the Saepta swarming with people, or the great Circus,…
- Wisdom Believe me: it is better to keep accounts of your own life than of the grain market.
- Courage Believe me: true joy is a weighty matter. Can anyone face death, poverty, restrained pleasure, and pain with ease…
- Temperance But come! let virtue lead the way: then every step will be safe. Too much pleasure is hurtful: but with virtue we need…
- Acceptance “But how is it that this man studies philosophy and nevertheless lives the life of a rich man? Why does he say that…
- Courage “But the way by which we are asked to climb is steep and uneven.” What then? Can heights be reached by a level path?…
- Temperance Call this security from loss poverty, want, necessity, or any contemptuous name you please: I shall consider such a…
- Wisdom Chance assigns us our parents, people say; yet we may choose the ancestors whose children we wish to be.
- Wisdom Circumstances mislead us, so judge them carefully. We often choose evil before good and desire what contradicts our…
- Justice Clemency, then, makes princes safer as well as more respected, and is a glory to empires besides being their most…
- Wisdom Consequently, the empire of the world has almost always remained in the hands of those nations who enjoy a milder…
- Temperance Consider the truly wealthy: how often they resemble the poor. When traveling, they limit their baggage; when speed is…
- Temperance Consider what we chase so fiercely: little of it is useful; much is needless, and much else is worth far less than it…
- Mortality Death is a release from and an end of all pains: beyond it our sufferings cannot extend: it restores us to the…
- Wisdom Death weighs heavily on the person known by everyone else but unknown to himself.
- Temperance Demochares, who was surnamed Parrhesiastes on account of his unbridled and impudent tongue, came on an embassy to him…
- Wisdom Disaster weighs more when it surprises us; the unexpected always deepens pain. Let nothing be wholly unforeseen:…
- Mortality Do I speak of our lives, which we know roll away incredibly fast? Reckon up the centuries of cities: you will find…
- Discipline Do not attempt to quell it all at once, for its first impulses are fierce; by plucking away its parts we shall remove…
- Discipline Do not commit the fault of making every one, who according to his ability admires your writings, ask how so frail a…
- Temperance Do not envy the person always displaying rank or fame; such prizes are purchased with life, and many reach the summit…
- Temperance Do not, then, make any mistake: riches belong to the class of desirable things. “Why then,” say you, “do you laugh at…
- Control “Do you ask,” writes he, “what I am doing here? I am living in my Tusculan villa almost as a prisoner.” He adds more…
- Justice Even Caesar, who may do all things, may not do many things for this very reason: his watchfulness protects all men’s…
- Control Even quiet times can give the anxious mind new material for fear. Once the mind has learned to panic blindly, safety…
- Justice Every one when he calls himself innocent looks rather to external witnesses than to his own conscience. How much more…
- Courage Fear itself harms many people; many meet the fate they dread because they lived in dread of it.
- Wisdom Finally, having traversed every one of the realms below, it soars to the highest heaven, enjoys the noblest of all…
- Justice Finally, the other passions seize upon individuals; anger is the only one which sometimes possesses a whole state. No…
- Mortality Fire will burn all people equally, male and female, of every rank and every age: steel will exhibit its cutting power…
- Wisdom For this reason we say that nothing comes upon the wise contrary to expectation.
- Gratitude Fortune overwhelms no one who has not first trusted her too much. The person who remains modest in prosperity is not…
- Wisdom Fortune strikes hardest when it catches us unprepared; the person who expects change bears it more easily.
- Acceptance Fortune's reach is shorter than we imagine; it besieges only those who cling to it. Let us withdraw from her as far as…
- Control Furthermore, that you may know in what manner passions begin and swell and gain spirit, learn that the first emotion…
- Wisdom Give the mind rest: after a break it returns stronger and sharper. Constant labor dulls and weakens the rational soul.
- Control Give up hope and you will give up fear; both arise because we send our thoughts too far beyond the present.
- Courage Good fortune can reach even the humble and untalented. Greatness belongs to the one who overcomes the shocks and…
- Temperance Greed has no point of enough, while nature is satisfied with little. Exile is therefore no calamity: no land is so…
- Discipline Have we got rid of the trouble of accusation? then we begin that of judging. Has a man ceased to be a judge? then he…
- Justice He best knows the time at which he ought to show favour to each man: I will use my utmost efforts to prevent his…
- Gratitude “He gave me the praetorship. Yes, but I had hoped for the consulship. He bestowed the twelve axes upon me: true, but…
- Justice He who follows others who have started before him on the wrong road is surely excusable for having wandered on the…
- Temperance He who restrains himself within the limits prescribed by 338nature, will not feel poverty; he who exceeds them will…
- Courage He who says that the wise man can bear this and cannot bear that, and restrains his magnanimity within certain limits,…
- Courage He who strives with a man makes himself that man’s rival, and must be on equal terms with him before he can overcome…
- Control He who, trusting to 33reason, passes through human affairs with godlike mind, has no quarter from which he can receive…
- Purpose He whose object is to be of service to his countrymen and to all mortals, exercises himself and does good at the same…
- Justice Hecato says: no herbs, potions, or spells are needed for this charm—if you want love, begin by loving.
- Wisdom Hence it is that we call some regions wet or dry, warm or cold. The same distinctions apply likewise to animals and…
- Temperance Heraclitus wept at public life, while Democritus laughed at it. We should bear human affairs lightly; it is more…
- Justice Hold in your bosom Novatilla, who soon will present you with great-grandchildren, she whom I had so entirely adopted…
- Justice How few magistrates are there who ought not to be condemned by the very same laws which they administer? How few…
- Mortality How many funerals pass our houses? yet we do not think of death. How many untimely deaths? we think only of our son’s…
- Purpose How many people have consumed your life while you failed to notice the loss? How much went to empty sorrow, foolish…
- Temperance How shameful when an aged advocate dies in court, still pleading for strangers and chasing the praise of an uninformed…
- Discipline How will he endure the tumult of the world, and make head against so many most active foes, if he be conquered by so…
- Courage However, to pass by all other instances, not to speak of the other deaths which have occurred in my own house. Fortune…
- Discipline “I am not a wise man, and I will not be one in order to feed your spite: so do not require me to be on a level with…
- Courage I call you unfortunate because you have met no adversity. You have gone through life without a rival, so neither you…
- Wisdom I do not praise those who rush into life's torrent and wrestle daily with hardship by choice. A wise person can endure…
- Purpose I do not see how these very different matters can have any connexion with one another. What is there, I pray you, to…
- Courage I do not wish for pain, war, or illness; but if they come, I wish to meet them bravely and honorably. Seek not…
- Justice I know, however, that there are some who imagine that clemency only saves the life of every villain, because clemency…
- Acceptance I was wrecked before I sailed; the voyage taught me how much is unnecessary and how readily we can release it when…
- Acceptance I will effect this cure, if possible, with your goodwill: if you disapprove of my efforts, or dislike them, then you…
- Wisdom I will keep watch over myself and, most usefully, review each day. We become bad because none of us looks back over…
- Wisdom I will not be embarrassed to borrow a fine saying from a poor writer.
- Acceptance I will set sail unless anything happens to prevent me, I shall 279be praetor, if nothing hinders me, my financial…
- Temperance If man, as they argue, seeks for quiet and repose, what virtue is there which is more agreeable to his nature than…
- Courage If trained to do so, they are just as able to endure sorrow or labour. Ye good gods, do I say this in that very city…
- Acceptance If you choose to have children, they may be handsome, or they may be deformed; perhaps they will be born dumb. One of…
- Temperance If you consider sexual passion to have been bestowed on mankind not for the sake of pleasure, but for 341the…
- Wisdom If you think fit, my Serenus, let us distinguish between injury and insult. The former is naturally the more grievous,…
- Wisdom If you were to bring to me all the money from all our mines, which we are at this moment sinking, if you were to bring…
- Justice In the city which possessed that most reverend tribunal, the Court of the Areopagus, which possessed a Senate, and a…
- Wisdom In the same spirit in which we deal with boys, the wise man deals with all those whose childhood still endures after…
- Temperance In the same way cheerful pursuits soothe unhealthy minds. We must avoid law courts, pleadings, verdicts, and…
- Justice In this very same instance I will give you an example of a good prince, which you may compare with a good father.
- Justice Indeed he shut up 136Lysimachus, who was no less his friend than Clitus, in a cage with a lion; yet did this make…
- Justice Is it then desirable that the gods should show no mercy upon sins and mistakes, and that they should harshly pursue us…
- Justice It accords with nature to love our friends and rejoice at their progress as though it were our own. Without this…
- Acceptance It appears as though this plague moved in a regular orbit, and spread ruin and desolation among us all without…
- Justice It is a speech which ought to be spoken 416before a meeting of all mankind, whose words all kings and princes ought to…
- Temperance It is a womanish thing to rage with passion; it is the part of wild beasts, and that, too, not of the most noble ones,…
- Wisdom It is above all things necessary to form a true estimate of oneself, because as a rule we think that we can do more…
- Acceptance It is better, therefore, to conquer it than to cheat it; for a grief which has been deceived and driven away either by…
- Acceptance It is better to overcome grief than to trick it.
- Acceptance It is hard, no doubt, for a mind which has received so rude a shock to betake itself so quickly to these livelier…
- Control It is, I repeat, the setting a great value on trifles that is the cause of your anger and madness. This 153man wanted…
- Wisdom It is like a wild animal whose struggles only pull the noose by which it is caught tighter; or like birds who, while…
- Wisdom It is like Homer’s Achilles, 258lying first upon its face, then upon its back, placing itself in various attitudes,…
- Justice It is possible to discover certain inconsistencies in the definition which comes nearer the truth than all the rest,…
- Temperance It is said that there was one Mindyrides, a citizen of Sybaris, who one day seeing a man digging and vigorously…
- Justice It is shameful to hate him whom you praise: but how much more shameful is it to hate a man for something for which he…
- Justice It is that of good parents, who sometimes scold their children goodnaturedly, sometimes threaten them, and sometimes…
- Wisdom It is the privilege of a tranquil and peaceful mind to review all the parts of its life: but the minds of busy men are…
- Wisdom It is, therefore, most commonly 419found in the worst people; there are old women and girls who are affected by the…
- Gratitude It is to guarantee the safety of all these that Fortune has struck you in this quarter: you have many left in whom you…
- Wisdom It is too late to school the mind to endurance of peril after peril has come. “I did not think this would happen,” and…
- Wisdom It is useful for a man to understand his disease, and to break its strength before it becomes developed. Let us see…
- Control It is when one passion overpowers another, and either fear or greed gets the upper hand for a while. On such…
- Courage It is your duty to imitate their constancy in enduring and triumphing over suffering, as far as it is permitted to a…
- Wisdom It is your trouble, Marcia, which has been dealt with here: it is beside your couch of mourning that Areus has been…
- Wisdom It often condemns a man because it dislikes his patron; it loves and maintains error even when truth is staring it in…
- Acceptance It ruins the soul to fear the future and suffer before suffering arrives. Longing to keep things forever steals the…
- Wisdom It shames an older person to carry only borrowed learning in notebooks. What do you say? Take charge and leave…
- Justice Keep a benefit as one keeps treasure buried for a time, drawing on it when needed. Nature calls us to help all people;…
- Courage King Cambyses was excessively addicted to wine. Praexaspes was the only one of his closest friends who advised him to…
- Acceptance Lay aside lamentations and wailings, and all the usual noisy manifestations of female sorrow: you have gained nothing…
- Wisdom Leisure without learning is death: a living person's grave.
- Temperance Let a man, then, obtain as many books as he wants, but none for show. “It is more respectable,” say you, “to spend…
- Justice Let different qualities in different people keep us from quarrelling with them: let us fear to be angry with some,…
- Purpose Let every effort aim at something and keep that purpose in sight. People are not troubled by activity itself, but by…
- Temperance Let every one, then, say to himself, whenever he is provoked, “Am I more powerful than Philip? yet he allowed a man to…
- Acceptance Let Fate meet us ready and at work. Greatness belongs to the soul that yields to the world's order; weakness complains…
- Discipline Let him rise in the presence of his elders. Let him obtain nothing by flying into a passion: let him be given when he…
- Purpose Let no one take even one day from me unless the exchange is worth the cost.
- Wisdom Let not his confidence be without knowledge, nor his knowledge without steadfastness: let him always abide by what he…
- Wisdom Let not our ears be easily lent to calumnious talk: let us know and be on our guard against this fault of human…
- Wisdom Let them no longer, then, join incongruous matters together, or connect pleasure with 218virtue, a mistake whereby…
- Courage Let us accomplish something courageous ourselves and take our place among those worthy of imitation.
- Acceptance Let us add, if you please, to these grounds of complaint the disposition of the youth himself, cut off in the midst of…
- Temperance Let us be free from this evil, let us clear our minds of it, and extirpate root and branch a passion which grows again…
- Temperance Let us conceal its symptoms, and as far as possible keep it secret and hidden. It will give us great trouble to do…
- Wisdom Let us decide by exact definition this other slippery matter, the true nature of pardon, and we shall then perceive…
- Temperance Let us differ inwardly in every way, while outwardly our appearance remains in harmony with those around us.
- Wisdom Let us look back upon our own youth, and think how often we then were too slothful in our duty, too impudent in our…
- Temperance Let us now enquire whether anger be in accordance with nature, and whether it be useful and worth entertaining in some…
- Wisdom Let us now prove what we said before: nay, who will not think this proved if he bethinks himself how great a passion…
- Courage Let us praise one who deserves such constant praises, and say, “The braver you are the happier you are!
- Wisdom Let us seek for some blessing, which does not merely look fine, but is sound and good throughout alike, and most…
- Justice Let us take examples for great kingdoms from smaller ones. There are many forms of royalty: a prince reigns over his…
- Courage Let us therefore briskly and cheerfully hasten with undaunted steps whithersoever circumstances call us: let us wander…
- Wisdom Let us therefore inquire, not what is most commonly done, but what is best for us to do, and what will establish us in…
- Temperance Let virtue lead the way and bear the standard: we shall have pleasure for all that, but we shall be her masters and…
- Discipline Let your own goodness of heart be gradually spread and diffused throughout the whole body of the empire, and all parts…
- Courage Life has no sound direction, and misery has no end, when we allow fear to rule.
- Purpose Life is not too brief; we waste much of it. It is ample for great work when used well, but luxury and neglect make it…
- Temperance Life's many hardships teach the lesson of silence.
- Acceptance Look at your father and your grandfather: the former fell into the hands of a foreign murderer: I allowed no man to…
- Gratitude Make yourself as grateful as you can. Gratitude benefits us greatly and returns its payment to the giver.
- Discipline Many faults would be avoided if a respected witness stood beside us as we began to err. Let the soul keep an example…
- Courage May it not be that, although anger be not natural, it may be right to adopt it, because it often proves useful? It…
- Purpose Meaningful work feeds a noble mind.
- Justice Men demand much, and expect much from you: you ought not to have drawn all eyes upon yourself, if you wished to be…
- Courage Men deserve praise for engaging in profitable studies, even though they stop short of producing any results. Why need…
- Purpose Men set the greatest store upon presents or pensions, and hire out their work, their services, or their care in order…
- Justice Men therefore love their own safety, when they draw up vast legions in battle on behalf of one man, when they rush to…
- Temperance Men who are in this condition are never allowed to come to themselves: if ever by chance they obtain any rest, they…
- Acceptance Morning can find someone exalted and evening find them low. Do not rely too much on success or despair of hardship;…
- Justice Much peace comes from doing no wrong; the undisciplined live confused and troubled.
- Acceptance Nature demands from us a certain amount of grief, our imagination adds some more to it; but I will never forbid you to…
- Mortality Nature gave him to you, as she gives others to other brothers, not as an absolute property, but as a loan: afterwards…
- Purpose Nevertheless Bibulus, who during the whole of his year of office had remained hidden in his house, to cast reproach…
- Justice No creature is more self-willed, requires more careful management, or ought to be treated with greater indulgence than…
- Gratitude No one can obtain every object of desire. But each of us can decline to crave what is absent and gladly use what is…
- Courage No one therefore could console you as well as he: when he speaks his words have greater weight, as though they were…
- Discipline No vice begins without an excuse, and at first it is modest and easy to restrain. Left alone, it spreads. Every…
- Justice Nothing can be imagined which is more becoming to a sovereign than clemency, by whatever title and right he may be set…
- Justice Nothing honorable is done unwillingly or by force; every noble act is freely chosen.
- Temperance Nothing, however, will be of so much service as to consider, first, the hideousness, and, secondly, the danger of…
- Justice Nothing, I think, is more admirable than that those who are in high places should pardon many shortcomings in others,…
- Temperance Nothing is more maddening than anger or more eager to display its force. When it succeeds it grows proud; when blocked…
- Justice Nothing is more unjust than that any one should inherit the quarrels of his father. Whenever we are loth to pardon any…
- Temperance Nothing is sufficient for covetous desire, but Nature can be satisfied even with scant measure. The poverty of an…
- Acceptance Nothing will happen that I cannot receive without bitterness. The burdens that provoke complaint are part of life's due.
- Wisdom Now I will prove to you that I am not deserting the 242tenets of the Stoics: for they themselves have not deserted…
- Courage Of all these propositions that which I have stated first appears the most difficult to prove. I mean, that the things…
- Discipline Of course it does, since Epicurus himself says that at times he would abandon pleasure and actually seek for pain, if…
- Temperance Of these wrongs which drive you frantic, some will grow lighter after an interval, not of a day, but even of an hour:…
- Wisdom Peace of mind is won only by those with firm and steady judgment. Others keep rising and falling in their decisions,…
- Temperance Philosophy asks for a simple life, not a punishing one; simplicity need not be harsh or crude.
- Wisdom Philosophy is no performance for display. It deals in deeds, orders the soul and life, directs action, and guides us…
- Wisdom Philosophy used arrogantly and stubbornly ruins many. Let it remove your own faults, not become a weapon against the…
- Discipline Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, and many other Stoics spoke well. People make such words their own by doing what they have…
- Justice Pray, Alexander, what is the difference between your throwing Lysimachus into a lion’s den and tearing his flesh with…
- Mortality Prepare your mind as though life were complete. Delay nothing; settle each day’s account. Whoever finishes each day…
- Wisdom Readiness to believe what we hear causes very great mischief; we ought often not even to listen, because in some cases…
- Temperance Revenge takes up much time, and throws itself in the way of many injuries while it is smarting under one. We all…
- Control See, on the other hand, how 210evil and guilty a slavery the man is forced to serve who is dominated in turn by…
- Purpose Set aside distractions and give yourself fully to this purpose before time's swift course leaves you behind. Welcome…
- Temperance Show me one who is not enslaved: one serves lust, another money, another rank, and all serve fear. No bondage is more…
- Purpose Show that a life is measured not by its years but by its use; it is common for someone to live long and yet live very…
- Temperance Show why the wise avoid drunkenness by its ugly results, not by speeches alone. Pleasures that exceed measure readily…
- Justice Slaves are allowed to run and take sanctuary at the statue of a god, though the laws allows a slave to be ill-treated…
- Temperance So, too, anger is in itself hideous and by no means to be feared; yet it is feared by many, just as a hideous mask is…
- Temperance Some are brought into this condition by disease or bodily injury, others by hard work, long watching, nights of…
- Wisdom Some are guided by reason, others must be confronted with authority and the names of celebrated persons, whose…
- Discipline Some crimes are of such a nature and bound by such conditions that the first part can take place without the second.…
- Wisdom Some gifted minds grasp virtue quickly or generate it themselves. Others, dulled by poor habits, need persistent…
- Purpose Some have been led hither by friendship, some by industry, which finds here a wide field for the display of its…
- Wisdom Some men’s leisure is busy: in their country house or on their couch, in complete solitude, even though they have…
- Temperance Some one has offered you an insult? Not a greater one, probably, than was offered to the Stoic philosopher Diogenes,…
- Temperance Some one who did not know Marcus Cato struck him in the public bath in his ignorance, for who would knowingly have…
- Wisdom Some people, through too little effort rather than inconsistency, are so unsettled that they do not live as they wish;…
- Discipline Some qualities cannot be separated from some others: they cling together; are indivisible. Dull minds, tending to…
- Temperance Some stories may be so construed as to appear to be insults: wherefore it is best to put some aside, to laugh at…
- Wisdom Some traces of these qualities exist even in them, though properly all of them, whether good or bad, belong to the…
- Wisdom Sorrow is awkward at reviewing the position of affairs, at devising useful expedients, avoiding dangerous courses, and…
- Wisdom Suppose that we are being punished; let us think not only of what we suffer, but of what we have done: let us sit in…
- Wisdom Take unhurried walks outdoors, so the open air and deep breath may restore and feed the mind.
- Control Tantalus: What is the greatest power? Thyestes: To need nothing from it.
- Wisdom Teach me to resemble Odysseus: to love home, spouse, and father, and after shipwreck still steer toward honorable ends.
- Temperance Test your spirit by sometimes accepting scant food and plain clothing, then ask whether this is the evil you feared.…
- Discipline That we may avoid it, certain general rules of conduct which apply to all men’s lives must be impressed upon us. We…
- Control The better a man is, the more frequently he is wont to suffer from your indiscriminate rage, you who are to be feared…
- Justice The cruelty even of private men has sometimes been revenged by their slaves in spite of the certainty that they will…
- Temperance The difference between it and irascibility is evident: it is the same as that between a drunken man and a drunkard;…
- Mortality The Emperor Augustus lost his darling sister Octavia, and though Nature destined him for heaven, yet she did not relax…
- Justice The first of these I shall only touch upon lightly, for I know that your heart loves nothing belonging to your…
- Courage The former belongs to an over-weak mind, the latter to an over-hard one. Let the wise man be moderate, and when things…
- Discipline The former will say to you, “In my talk I express the most admirable sentiments, yet I am still weltering amid…
- Acceptance The foundations of new cities are laid, new names of nations arise, while the former ones die out, or become absorbed…
- Justice The good person does what is honorable despite labor, injury, or danger, and refuses what is shameful despite profit,…
- Temperance The great Gaius Caesar, who proved such a merciful conqueror in the civil war, did the same thing; he burned a packet…
- Wisdom The great Socrates would say the same thing to you. “Make me,” he would say, “the conqueror of all nations: let the…
- Wisdom The greatest teachers divide philosophy into moral, natural, and rational study. Moral study orders the soul; natural…
- Acceptance The happy man, therefore, is he who can make a right judgment in all things: he is happy who in his present…
- Courage The hardness of flint is known to none so well as to those who strike it. I offer myself to all attacks, like some…
- Control The higher region of the universe, being more excellently ordered and near to the stars, is never gathered into…
- Temperance The increase which disease produces in bodies swollen with morbid humours is not healthy growth, but bloated…
- Temperance The inventor of wine is called Liber, not from the licence which he gives to our tongues, but because he liberates the…
- Acceptance The latter of these, whenever be 282appeared in public, used to weep, the former to laugh: the one thought all human…
- Justice The leading man in the state, and one who, according to tradition, was noted among the ancient leaders of the state…
- Temperance The maker of the world gave us what is needed to live well, not to live lavishly. What serves us is close at hand;…
- Justice The man did it because he was ordered to do it. Who but an unjust person can be angry with what is done under…
- Control The man understands something to have happened: he becomes indignant thereat: he condemns the deed; and he avenges it.…
- Discipline The mind can carry out whatever orders it gives itself: some have succeeded in never smiling: some have forbidden…
- Purpose The mind can find no safe repose there, it must needs be shaken and tempest-tossed if it be safe only because of its…
- Temperance The next step is to see whether an alteration in their amount will be of service. If neither alteration of the order…
- Wisdom The only persons who are really at leisure are those who devote themselves to philosophy: and they alone really live:…
- Justice The philosopher may own ample wealth, but will not own wealth that which has been torn from another, or which is…
- Control The position of all busy men is unhappy, but most unhappy of all is that of those who do not even labour at their own…
- Temperance The rational soul's chronic diseases are hardened faults such as greed and ambition: they twist judgment until mildly…
- Courage The reasoning soul is stronger than every turn of fortune. From within itself it directs its life and makes it happy…
- Wisdom The same girl, who would have shrunk from the remedy if he had applied it openly, bore the pain because she did not…
- Justice The services of a good citizen are never thrown away: he does good by being heard and seen, by his expression, his…
- Mortality The seven wonders of the world, and any even greater wonders which the ambition of later ages has constructed, will be…
- Justice The sinner ought, therefore, to be corrected both by warning and by force, both by gentle and harsh means, and may be…
- Temperance The soul may be a ruler or a tyrant. When it honors what is good, it cares for the body and gives no shameful…
- Wisdom The talk of these men is not dangerous, their friendship will not lead you to the scaffold, their society will not…
- Wisdom The two sects of Epicureans and Stoics differ widely in most respects, and on this point among the rest, nevertheless,…
- Justice The unlearned think that its opposite is strictness: but no virtue is the opposite of another virtue. What, then, is…
- Purpose The whole house mourned for the leisure of its old master, and did not lay aside its mourning until his work was…
- Control The wise man escapes all this, since he knows not what it is to live for hope or for fear. Add to this, that no one…
- Wisdom The wise man knows that all those who strut about in purple-edged togas, healthy and embrowned, are brain-sick people,…
- Acceptance The wise man will never cease to be angry, if he once begins, so full is every place of vices and crimes. More evil is…
- Wisdom The wise person loses nothing, for all that is truly theirs is stored in themselves. Their goods rest in virtue,…
- Courage The wretched man did not lose his readiness of speech; his face did not change. “Every kind of dinner,” said he, “is…
- Courage The wrongs of the powerful must not only be borne, but borne with a cheerful countenance: they will repeat the wrong…
- Temperance There is a lesser form of injury, which we must complain of rather than avenge, which the laws also have considered…
- Temperance There is no passion that is more frantic, more destructive to its own self; it is arrogant if successful, and frantic…
- Control There is no reason for you to suppose me conquered and yourself my conqueror. It is your fortune which has overcome…
- Discipline There is no reason why we should seek to defend such a passion as this or excuse its excesses by declaring it to be…
- Acceptance There is, therefore, no reason for a service which is useless if it is not felt by him who is the object of it, and…
- Temperance There is therefore nothing great or noble in anger, even when it seems to be powerful and to contemn both gods and men…
- Wisdom These arms, which Aristotle assigns to virtue, fight of their own accord, do not wait to be seized by the hand, and…
- Wisdom These should be regarded as examples to be avoided, and what I am about to relate, on the contrary, to be followed,…
- Justice Think, moreover, how full of risk is the great task which you have undertaken: you have to deal with the human…
- Acceptance Think of your son’s handsome person, which you had guarded in perfect purity among all the temptations of a voluptuous…
- Control Think you that the people could do any wrong to such a man when they tore away his praetorship or his toga? when they…
- Justice This is not anger, it is ferocity: for it does not do hurt because it has received injury: but is even willing to…
- Courage This is perhaps the very worst quality of cruelty: a man must go on exercising it, and it is impossible for him to…
- Justice This may be that of the Athenians or Carthaginians, or of any other city which does not belong to all men but to some…
- Temperance To rejoice and be glad is the proper and natural function of virtue: it is as much beneath her dignity to be angry, as…
- Purpose To sum up the matter, I ask you whether Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and Zeno lived in accordance with their doctrine? I am…
- Courage Tradition tells us that Vatinius, a man born both to be laughed at and hated, was a witty and clever jester. He made…
- Control True happiness, therefore, consists in virtue: and what will this virtue bid you do? Not to think anything bad or good…
- Purpose Unable to serve in one public role, serve in another. If speech is denied, offer a quiet example. If civic duties are…
- Wisdom Virtue is the sole good, and no secure good exists apart from it. Virtue belongs to our rational part: firm, truthful…
- Wisdom Virtues do the same thing in the opposite direction, and improve all those with whom they are brought in contact: it…
- Temperance We are angry, either with those who can, or with those who cannot do us an injury. To the latter class belong some…
- Gratitude We are born to a comfortable position enough, if we 324do not afterwards lose it: the aim of Nature has been to enable…
- Wisdom We are infuriated at being reproved, either by reprimand or actual chastisement, although we are sinning at that very…
- Purpose We guard our property fiercely yet surrender our lives to others. Be most sparing with time, the one possession that…
- Acceptance We might go on blaming fate much longer, but we cannot alter it: it stands harsh and inexorable: no one can move it by…
- Discipline We must abandon many things we call good but have become dependent on. Otherwise courage withers, for it needs…
- Discipline We must limit the running to and fro which most men practise, rambling about houses, theatres, and market-places. They…
- Wisdom What are we to say to the argument that, if anger were a good thing it would attach itself to all the best men? Yet…
- Control “What then? Will there be no one who will try to do an injury to the wise man?” Yes, some one will try, but the injury…
- Control What, too, can be more unworthy of the wise man, than that his passions should depend upon the wickedness of others?…
- Wisdom What use are countless books and libraries whose titles one lifetime cannot finish? A learner may be burdened rather…
- Gratitude Whatever gift Fortune bestows upon a man, let him think while he enjoys it, that it will prove as fickle as the…
- Acceptance Whatever has arrived at perfection, is ripe for dissolution. Consummate virtue flees away and betakes itself out of…
- Courage Whatever he meant, it was a magnanimous answer. Some one may say, “After this Gaius might have let him live.” Kanus…
- Discipline Whatever remains to be done, virtue meets with courage and speed. It is foolish to undertake work grudgingly, sending…
- Justice When as they proceeded neither roots nor herbs were to be found in the sand, and they found a wilderness destitute…
- Justice When Fortune has unjustly divided the common stock, and has given over one man to another, though they were born with…
- Wisdom When great and kinglike riches fall into the hands of a bad master, they are dispersed straightway, but even a…
- Wisdom When he asked for the watchword Gaius at one time gave him “Venus,” and at another “Priapus,” and by various means…
- Acceptance When he was in the act of holding the doorpost and dedicating the Capitol the news of his son’s death was brought to…
- Discipline When he was just of your age, at the end of his twenty-second year, he had already hidden daggers under the clothes of…
- Wisdom When hurrying to besiege Babylon, since in making war it is above all things important to seize one’s opportunity, he…
- Gratitude When I return from seeing it I am a sadder, though not a worse man, I cannot walk amid my own paltry possessions with…
- Control When men employ anger as the most powerful of agents, consider it to be a proof of power, and reckon a speedy revenge…
- Justice When sponges were not forthcoming, he ordered the wretched men’s clothes to be torn up, and the rags stuffed into…
- Temperance When they are on a journey their baggage is cut down, whenever they are obliged to travel fast their train of…
- Wisdom When you are especially enjoying yourself, be especially on your guard: when everything seems to you to be peaceful,…
- Acceptance Whenever you are engaged in other pursuits your mind will be relieved from its burden: at present you keep watch over…
- Wisdom Which will he go to meet first? which part of the universal conspiracy will he first oppose? His victory will drag him…
- Discipline Whoever uses philosophy to heal the self becomes high-minded, confident, and hard to defeat; their stature grows as…
- Courage Why be indignant? Why protest? This is the task for which we are made.
- Courage Why make misfortune heavier by lamenting it? It is the stronger course to meet adversity directly. The more precarious…
- Wisdom Why, though you are hardly aware of it, is there not a whirling hurricane at this moment spinning round and confusing…
- Justice Why, wherefore is the people angry with gladiators, and so unjust as to think itself wronged if they do not die…
- Wisdom Will any one give this passion as an assistant and companion to virtue, although it disturbs calm reason, without…
- Wisdom Will you follow your predecessors? Certainly—but if I discover a path shorter and smoother, I will make use of it.…
- Wisdom With them you may class men whose dull nature and want of self-knowledge reduces them to the level of cattle, mere…
- Courage Work through your troubles: difficult times can be eased, narrow passages opened, and heavy burdens lightened by…
- Justice Would to heaven that such savagery had contented itself with foreign examples, and that barbarity in anger and…
- Justice Wrongdoing often comes back upon the one who taught it.
- Temperance You 158should approach him in different ways and in a compliant fashion, unless perchance you be so great a personage…
- Gratitude You accustom yourself to them and cling to them as if somebody had promised that they should be yours for ever, but a…
- Justice You are as yet only in the first stage of error, and do not go wrong seriously, although you do so often: then I will…
- Justice You are indignant at being answered back by your slave, your freedman, your wife, or your client: and then you…
- Purpose You are mistaken, therefore, when you ask me what it is on account of which I seek after virtue: for you are seeking…
- Mortality You are mistaken! your brother has not lost the light of day, but has obtained a more enduring light: whither he has…
- Discipline You are not traveling but drifting from place to place, though the good life you seek is available everywhere. Even…
- Discipline You ask me, whither does all this tend? To prove, I answer, that no one should imagine himself to be safe from anger,…
- Courage You ask what difference there is between them? All that there is between two very brave gladiators, one of whom…
- Purpose You ask, what this post is? it is that of being a man. The wise man has another help, of the opposite kind to this;…
- Acceptance You cannot even say that you have been specially marked by the gods for misfortune because you have had no pleasure in…
- Purpose You cannot find any one who wants to distribute his money; yet among how many people does every one distribute his…
- Discipline You cannot stray away from your position; it besets you, and follows you with mighty pomp wherever you go. This…
- Temperance You cannot tell whether this vice is more execrable or more disgusting. Other vices can be concealed and cherished in…
- Control You dispose of that which is in the hand of Fortune, and you let go that which is in your own. Whither are you…
- Control You do not afford virtue a solid immoveable base if you bid it stand on what is unsteady: and what can be so unsteady…
- Control You do not shine outwardly, all your good qualities are turned inwards; even so does the world neglect what lies…
- Wisdom You enviously compare the glories of others with your own dirty actions, and do not understand how greatly to your…
- Mortality You fear dying—but what is this life of yours if it is not already a kind of death?
- Courage You have asked me, Lucilius, why, if the world be ruled by providence, so many evils befall good men?
- Justice You have coveted a glory which is most rare, and which has been obtained by no emperor before you, that of innocence.…
- Discipline You have entered the arena of the Olympic games, but no one 11else has done so: you have the crown, but not the…
- Gratitude You have grieved at the only grief so good a son could cause you: all else is beyond the power of fortune to harm, and…
- Acceptance You have no grounds for excusing yourself on the ground of being a woman, who has a sort of right to weep without…
- Mortality You have no grounds, therefore, for supposing that any one has lived long, because he has wrinkles or grey hairs: such…
- Justice You have seen your friend in a rage with the porter of some lawyer or rich man, because he has sent him back when…
- Temperance You know the taste of wine and spirits. Whether hundreds or thousands of bottles pass through you, you are only a…
- Acceptance You lost your most affectionate uncle, a brave and excellent man, just when you were awaiting his return: and, lest…
- Courage You may as well say—“What then? When a good man sees his father or his son being cut down, I suppose he will not weep…
- Discipline You may be sure that one who showed such boldness as a child would end by becoming a great pest both in public and in…
- Acceptance You may make this simile apply to your whole entrance into life. I have explained to you what attractions and what…
- Justice You may observe the same thing in human life: no one can merely go wrong by himself, but he must become both the cause…
- Wisdom You must be aware that none of them know how to behave, whether to mention Drusus in your presence or not, as they…
- Wisdom You must decide whether your disposition is better suited for vigorous action or for tranquil speculation and…
- Acceptance You must now show a virtue equal to hers, recall your mind from grief, and take care that no one may think that you…
- Control You need not believe what others say about me: that you may not be puzzled by any uncertainty as to what to think, I…
- Mortality You need not, therefore, hasten to the burial-place of your son: that which lies there is but the worst part of him…
- Courage You need not think, because sometimes they call for death, that their lives are long: their folly torments them with…
- Acceptance You never would deny me anything, and I hope, though all grief is obstinate, that you will surely not refuse me this…
- Temperance “You purposely misunderstand what I say,” says he, “for I too say that no one can live pleasantly unless he lives…
- Acceptance You say, “I am deprived of the embraces of my darling son, I cannot enjoy the pleasure of seeing him and of hearing…
- Acceptance You say, 'I am in terrible pain.' Does bearing it badly lessen the pain at all?
- Acceptance You say, “I cannot endure it: injuries are hard to bear.” You lie; for how can any one not be able to bear injury, if…
- Wisdom You say that the wise man is not mad, yet you admit that he sometimes loses his reason, talks nonsense, and is driven…
- Wisdom You say, that you do not believe that any one was ever scared out of anger by a mirror: and why not? Because when he…
- Justice You see how free from any mental disturbance a man ought to be who has to weigh and consider all this, when he deals…
- Courage You should know that good men ought to act in like manner, so as not to fear troubles and difficulties, nor to lament…
- Acceptance You, therefore, who allow them to trouble you to an unreasonable extent ought especially to restrain yourselves, and…
- Justice You waste your pains: you want to do what is certain to be done. You say, “I do not wish necessarily to kill him, but…
- Wisdom You will find that the most powerful and highly-placed men let fall phrases in which they long for leisure, praise it,…
- Justice You will more easily correct the men themselves by a slight punishment, for he who has some part of his fortune…
- Purpose You will say to me, “Seneca, what are you doing? do you desert your party? I am sure that our Stoic philosophers say…
- Control You will see that men are subject to the same influences as dumb animals: we are put out by trumpery, futile matters.…
- Acceptance You will show more respect for the youth himself, who well deserves that it should make you glad to speak and think of…
- Wisdom Your father sewed up more parricides in sacks during five years, than we hear of in all previous centuries. As long as…
- Justice Your great-great-grandfather spared the vanquished: for whom could he have ruled over, had he not spared them? He…