Seneca the Younger
A prominent Stoic philosopher, dramatist, and statesman, known for his moral essays and letters.
Most quoted
"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. 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."
— from De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life)
"We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?"
— from Letters to Lucilius
"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."
— from De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life)
All quotes by Seneca the Younger (118)
The soul should be adorned with all the virtues.
No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity.
Life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing.
We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation.
The first and greatest punishment of the wicked is that they are wicked.
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
Fidelity purchased with money is bought basely.
The mind is never more deceitful than when it is at rest.
You must live for yourself, not for another.
The happy life is to one which is suited to man's nature.
Time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
We must make the best of those ills which we have no power to prevent.
The bad fortune of the good turns to good.
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.
Precepts for the good are easy; it is the bad who need many rules.
The way is long if one does not know the goal.
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well-ordered mind than a man's ability to stop just where he is and pass the time without boredom.
The life of the foolish is empty.
We should live as if we were always about to depart.
Contemporaries of Seneca the Younger
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Seneca the Younger (4–65).