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42 Invaluable Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger, was a Roman statesman. Living at the turn of the first century AD, he died in Rome. Serving as the tutor and later adviser to the Emperor Nero, Seneca was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His death was ordered by Emperor Nero to commit suicide by severing the veins of his body and slowly bleeding out. This resulted in a painful demise. Here is a look at some of the most influential Lucius Annaeus Seneca quotes left behind.

“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.”

“All cruelty springs from weakness.”

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

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

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

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

“Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.”

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

“He who is brave is free.”

“He who spares the wicked injures the good.”

“I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land.”

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

“If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according what others think, you will never be rich.”

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

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

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

“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”

“Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”

“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”

“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”

“No man was ever wise by chance.”

“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”

“Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.”

“Only time can heal what reason cannot.”

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

“The best ideas are common property.”

“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.”

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

“The sun also shines on the wicked.”

“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.”

“There is no genius without a touch of madness.”

“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.”

“To be always fortunate, and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature.”

“To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”

“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.”

Here is a look back at some of the most infamous philosophies and teachings of Seneca in length.

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