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Life Quotes by Seneca

42 Life quotes by Seneca

All Life quotes Seneca’s page

Seneca says a happy person makes good judgments in every situation. He treats life as a field where both good and evil can grow. He also advises following nature’s path, because that makes life flow smoothly. He reminds us that death is not something we own, so we should not waste the time we have.

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“Beyond all things is the sea”

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“Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.”

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“Who scorns his own life is lord of yours.”

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Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

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“The amount of life we truly live is small. For our existence on Earth is not Life, but merely Time.”

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Life is neither a good nor an evil: it is a field for good and evil

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“There is no need to complain of particular grievances, for life in its entirety is lamentable.”

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“So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not Ill-supplied but wasteful…

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“The happy life is a life that is in harmony with its own nature.”

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“You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?”

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“It is more civilized to make fun of life than to bewail it.”

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“It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and…

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“we deceive ourselves in thinking that death only follows life whereas it both goes before and will follow after it for where…

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“You are unfortunate in my judgment, for you have never been unfortunate. You have passed through life with no antagonist to face…

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“life is not worth living, and there is no limit to our sorrows, if we indulge our fears to the greatest possible…

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“And what’s so bad about your being deprived of that?... All things seem unbearable to people who have become spoilt, who have…

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“No one dies except on his own day. You are throwing away none of your own time; for what you leave behind…

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“I wish Lucilius you had been so happy as to have taken this resolution long ago I wish we had not deferred…

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“Mankind is perpetually the victim of a pointless and futile martydom, fretting life away in fruitless worries though failure to realise what…

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“It is regret for the absence of his loved one which causes a mourner to grieve: yet it is clear that this…

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“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough,…

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“Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present…

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“Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time.…

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“The happy man, therefore, is he who can make a right judgment in all things: he is happy who in his present…

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“let us keep to the way which Nature has mapped out for us, and let us not swerve therefrom. If we follow…

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“If anyone says that the best life of all is to sail the sea, and then adds that I must not sail…

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“Therefore continually remind yourself, Lucilius, how many ambitions you have attained. When you see many ahead of you, think how many are…

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“While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of…

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“Look back in memory and consider when you ever had a fixed plan, how few days have passed as you had intended,…

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“All the greatest blessings are a source of anxiety, and at no time should fortune be less trusted than when it is…

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“Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness…

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“You are living as if destined to live for ever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much…

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“they Whatever can make life truly happy is absolutely good in its own right because it cannot be warped into evil From…

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“For it is dangerous to attach one's self to the crowd in front, and so long as each one of us is…

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“Is there anything more ridiculous than a person talking with certitude about the future? Such people devote their energy on creating a…

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“For we are not summoned according to the paristi register And besides there is no man so old as to make it…

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“Who can doubt, my dear Lucilius, that life is the gift of the immortal gods, but that living well1 is the gift…

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“Consider the whole world reconnoitre individuals j who is there whose life is not taken up with providing for to morrow Do…

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“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands…

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“Pacuvius, who by long occupancy made Syria his own,8 used to hold a regular burial sacrifice in his own honour, with wine…

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More by Seneca

“You should, I need hardly say, live in such a way that there is nothing which you could not as easily tell your enemy…

“The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence.”

Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.

“the wise man is self-sufficient, that he can do without friends, not that he desires to do without them. When I say "can," I…

“This, I say, is the highest duty and the highest proof of wisdom, – that deed and word should be in accord, that”

“But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many…

“Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun…

“I’ve come across people who say that there is a sort of inborn restlessness in the human spirit and an urge to change one’s…

“Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself…

Economy is too late at the bottom of the purse

“On Epicurus; He says: "Contended poverty is an honourable estate." Indeed, if it is contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not…

“...certain people have good, ordinary blood and others have an animated, lively sort of blood that comes to the face quickly.”

“we perish because we follow other men's examples: we should be cured of this if we were to disengage ourselves from the herd;”

“they Whatever can make life truly happy is absolutely good in its own right because it cannot be warped into evil From whence then…

“And when the soul has yielded to pleasure, its functions and actions grow weak, and any undertaking comes from a nerveless and unsteady source.”