Best Seneca Quotes
Seneca Quotes About Life, Love, Time, Latin, Death, Stoicism, Luck, Leadership, Happiness, Suffering & Learning! One of the most significant Roman Stoic philosophers and rulers and an orator and tragic poet was Lucius Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca). Seneca, one of Rome’s greatest intellectuals, was also a teacher and counselor to Nero, the emperor. He was the son of Seneca Rhetor, a prominent author of rhetorical works. Seneca was born in Cordova, Spain, approximately 5 or 4 B.C.
Seneca was sent to Rome as a child by an aunt to receive oratory and philosophical training. Because of his education, he became an accomplished senator and public speaker. Emperor Caligula was envious of Seneca’s oratory talents and ordered his death, and Seneca could only evacuate due to Caligula’s dire prognosis for Seneca’s life expectancy.
Despite surviving Caligula’s rule, Seneca was exiled because the following emperor’s wife accused him of infidelity. Seneca’s philosophical writings are not defined by originality or depth of analysis but instead by the passion of delivery and knowledge of the practical constraints of life and the faults of human nature. There are also seven volumes called Natural Questions, published in 62-63, which were the standard work in cosmology until Aristotle’s rediscovery. Each of Lucilius’s 124 epistles is filled with exciting asides that provide a fascinating view of Roman society.
Seneca’s philosophy is based on morality, justice, and virtue. It has been centuries since his ideas on philosophy, religion, and epistemology have received any attention. In recent years, more Stoics and philosophers have rediscovered the loftiness of Seneca’s principles, leading to a renaissance of Senecan philosophical thought. In Elizabethan England, playwrights like Shakespeare were inspired by Seneca’s work. His masterpiece, Oedipus, was seen as the standard for tragedies, and it was held in high regard.
Best Seneca Quotes
1. “Life, if well lived, is long enough.” ― Seneca
2. “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” ― Seneca
3. “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.” ― Seneca
4. “Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.” ― Seneca
5. “Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.” ― Seneca
6. “How does it help…to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?” ― Seneca
7. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.” ― Seneca
8. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” ― Seneca
9. “Time heals what reason cannot.” ― Seneca
10. “Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.” ― Seneca
11. “The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” ― Seneca
12. “It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much… The life we receive is not short but we make it so.” ― Seneca
13. “Remember that pain has this most excellent quality. If prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.” ― Seneca
14. “Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” — Seneca
15. “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” — Seneca
16. “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” ― Seneca
17. “Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters..” ― Seneca
18. “While we wait for life, life passes.” ― Seneca
19. “We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.” ― Seneca
20. “Every night before going to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness did I overcome today? What virtue did I acquire?” — Seneca
21. “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.” — Seneca
22. “Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.” — Seneca
23. “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” ― Seneca
24. “Associate with people who are likely to improve you.” ― Seneca
25. “To wish to progress is the largest part of progress.” ― Seneca
26. “Besides, he who is feared, fears also; no one has been able to arouse terror and live in peace of mind.” ― Seneca
27. “It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” ― Seneca
28. “Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.” ― Seneca
29. “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” ― Seneca
30. “It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” ― Seneca
