Seneca’s wisest quotes (Stoicism)
Born in 4 BC, Seneca also known as “Seneca The Younger” was a Roman stoic philosopher. Seneca who was a successful financial clerk and writer found himself exiled for adultery. He was later hired to tutor a young boy called Nero who would become a tyrannical emperor of Rome. Nero later had Seneca execute himself for allegedly conspiring against him. A claim that was most likely untrue.
“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.”
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.”
“Every night before going to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness did I overcome today? What virtue did I acquire?”
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”
“Life is never incomplete if it is an honorable one. At whatever point you leave life, if you leave it in the right way, it is whole.”
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. You want to live but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying but tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different to being dead?”
“The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be.”
“Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.”
“As is a tale, so his life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
“If you really want to escape the things that Harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
“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.”
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”
“Hang on do your youthful enthusiasms you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.”
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
