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)
Virtue is sufficient for happiness.
Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.
The wise man regards the reason for all his actions, but not the results.
In the midst of peace, war is feared; in the midst of war, peace is desired.
What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
While we are postponing, life speeds by.
You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head.
He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms — you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.
No man was ever wise by chance.
It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.
We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it.
A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.
He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man.
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
We learn not in the school, but in life.
No evil is great which is the last.
What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.
Contemporaries of Seneca the Younger
Other Philosophys born within 50 years of Seneca the Younger (4–65).