Seneca Quotations

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life.

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

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.

We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company

Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy

Retirement without the love of letters is a living burial

If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.

Give yourself time and room; what reason could not avoid, delay has often cured

He who comes to a conclusion when the other side is unheard, may have been just in his conclusion, but yet has not been just in his conduct

He is most powerful who has power over himself

To forgive all is as inhuman as to forgive none

Gold is tried by fire, brave men by adversity

True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient

Tis not the belly's hunger that costs so much, but its pride

We are more wicked together than separately. If you are forced to be in a crowd, then most of all you should withdraw into yourself

We learn not in the school, but in life

We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

What must be shall be; and that which is a necessity to him that struggles, is little more than choice to him that is willing

We had reports of 8 to 10 inches on the Outer Banks and 4 to 6 inches in coastal counties,

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

Sadness usually results from one of the following causes either when a man does not succeed, or is ashamed of his success

This body is not a home but an inn, and that only briefly

A man who has taken your time recognizes no debt; yet it is the one he can never repay

A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands

Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.

The voice of flattery affects us after it has ceased, just as after a concert men find some agreeable air ringing in their ears to the exclusion of all serious business