75 Seneca Quotes About Life, Wisdom and Greatness

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, known as Seneca, was born over 2000 years ago in Southern Spain and then educated in Rome. Seneca’s exposure to philosophy came from Attalus, a Stoic philosopher who was Seneca’s earliest teacher. Many of Seneca's quotes focus on perseverance throughout life.

Because Seneca went through many turbulent times, it's no wonder he was a believer in Stoicism. He was exiled to the island of Corsica after being accused of adultery and later was ordered to be put to death by Nero. Throughout it all, he both wrote on philosophy and used it to handle all of the ups and downs he experienced.

Most of the writings of Seneca came in the form of letters. They are full of wisdom and self awareness. These 75 quotes by Seneca capture some of his best works and offer plenty of wisdom for going through daily life.

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75 Seneca Quotes

1. “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.”

2. “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

3. “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”

4. “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”

5. “Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms -- you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.”

6. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

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

8. “Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.”

9. “No man was ever wise by chance.”

10. “Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”

11. “He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”

12. “Only time can heal what reason cannot.”

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

14. “As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

15. “Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool.”

16. “The sun also shines on the wicked.”

17. “It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more.”

18. “We learn not in the school, but in life.”

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19. “Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”

20. “A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”

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21. “But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

22. “Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”

23. “Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.”

24. “It does not matter how many books you have, but how good the books are which you have.”

25. “It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

26. “It is difficult to bring people to goodness with lessons, but it is easy to do so by example.”

27. “It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”

28. “Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”

29. “The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable.”

30. “No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity.”

31. “It is quality rather than quantity that matters.”

32. “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.”

33. “But when you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of true friendship.”

34. “For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.”

35. “What is harder than rock? What is softer than water? Yet hard rocks are hollowed out by soft water?”

36. “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for crisis."

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37. “It's not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.”

38. “What fortune has made yours is not your own.”

39. “If what you have seems insufficient to you, then though you possess the world, you will yet be miserable.”

40. “When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.”

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41. “Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life.”

42. “Men do not care how nobly they live, but only for how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long.”

43. “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.”

44. “Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.”

45. “People who know no self-restraint lead stormy and disordered lives, passing their time in a state of fear commensurate with the injuries they do to others, never able to relax.”

46. “All this hurrying from place to place won’t bring you any relief, for you’re traveling in the company of your own emotions, followed by your troubles all the way.”

47. “Throw aside all hindrances and give up your time to attaining a sound mind.”

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

49. “While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

50. “Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.”

51. “I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”

52. “The more a mind takes in the more it expands.”

53. “When a mind is impressionable and has none too firm a hold on what is right, it must be rescued from the crowd: it is so easy for it to go over to the majority.”

54. “You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.”

55. “Just as with storytelling, so with life: it's important how well it is done, not how long.”

56. “There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”

57. “The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.”

58. “To expect punishment is to suffer it and to earn it is to expect it.”

59. “Envy of other people shows how they are unhappy. Their continual attention to other's behavior shows how they are boring.”

60. “Injustice never rules forever.”

61. “A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it.”

62. “Preserve a sense of proportion in your attitude to everything that pleases you, and make the most of them while they are at their best.”

63. “For manliness gains much strength by being challenged.”

64. “It is not what you endure that matters, but how you endure it.”

65. “No man can be sane who searches for what will injure him in place of what is best.”

66. “I never spend a day in idleness; I appropriate even a part of the night for study. I do not allow time for sleep but yield to it when I must, and when my eyes are wearied with waking and ready to fall shut, I keep them at their task.”

67. “It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity.”

68. “A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.”

69. “The shortest route to wealth is the contempt of wealth.”

70. “Love sometimes injures. Friendship always benefits, After friendship is formed you must trust, but before that, you must judge.”

71. “However much you possess there's someone else who has more, and you'll be fancying yourself to be short of things you need to the exact extent to which you lag behind him.”

72. “Happy is the man who can make others better, not merely when he is in their company, but even when he is in their thoughts!”

73. “If you have nothing to stir you up and rouse you to action, nothing which will test your resolution by its threats and hostilities; if you recline in unshaken comfort, it is not tranquillity; it is merely a flat calm.”

74. “Soft living imposes on us the penalty of debility; we cease to be able to do the things we've long been grudging about doing.”

75. “It is better to be despised for simplicity than to suffer agonies from everlasting pretense.”

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