Seneca

Stoic philosopher

Ancient influential 89 sayings

Sayings by Seneca

No man was ever wise by chance.

1st century CE — Letters to Lucilius
Controversial Confirmed

It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.

1st century CE — Letters to Lucilius
Controversial Unverifiable

Life is like a play: it matters not how long it is, but how good it is.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 77, On Taking One's Own Life
Humorous Unverifiable

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 77, On Taking One's Own Life (alternative translation)
Humorous Unverifiable

Until we have begun to compose ourselves, we are but children.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 76, On Learning Wisdom
Humorous Unverifiable

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

c. 49 AD — On the Shortness of Life, Chapter 2
Humorous Unverifiable

Every man is a slave to his own passions.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 51, On Baiae and Morals
Humorous Unverifiable

Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

c. 45 AD — On Anger, Book 3, Chapter 28
Humorous Unverifiable

Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 7, On the Crowd
Humorous Unverifiable

For many men, the end of life is not the end of suffering.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 77, On Taking One's Own Life
Humorous Unverifiable

What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who sets a daily price on each day, who understands that he is dying daily?

c. 49 AD — On the Shortness of Life, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

Every day is a new life to a wise man.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 23, On the True Joy which Comes from Philosophy
Humorous Unverifiable

No one can be happy who has been thrust out of the way of truth and wanders about through a labyrinth of error.

c. 58 AD — On the Happy Life, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 52, On the Vices of the Roman Populace
Humorous Unverifiable

What is the best way to conquer anger? By forgetting it.

c. 45 AD — On Anger, Book 2, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

We are often more afraid than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, On the Groundless Fears that Trouble Us (alternative translati…
Humorous Unverifiable

Leisure without books is death, and burial of a living man.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 82, On Natural Philosophy
Humorous Unverifiable

A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2, On Discursiveness in Reading
Humorous Unverifiable

No man was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 65, On the First Cause
Humorous Unverifiable

Until you have settled in your mind, what is best, you will be in a state of irresolution.

c. 65 AD — Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 42, On the Power of Philosophy
Humorous Unverifiable