Seneca the Younger 4 BC – 65
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, commonly known as Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the first century. He served as tutor and later adviser to the emperor Nero, before being forced to commit suicide in 65 AD on suspicion of involvement in a conspiracy against him. His Letters to Lucilius, a collection of 124 epistles on Stoic ethics and the practice of philosophy, are among the most widely-read works of classical philosophy. He also produced philosophical essays including On the Shortness of Life, On Anger, and On the Happy Life, as well as a body of tragic dramas that influenced Renaissance theatre. His prose style and ethical preoccupations shaped Christian moral writing in late antiquity and Renaissance humanism.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Roman
- Era
- Ancient
- Movements
- Stoicism, Hellenistic
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”
Quotes that are not actually from Seneca the Younger
These lines are widely circulated as Seneca the Younger, but they do not appear in Seneca the Younger's works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
This line is widely circulated as Seneca, but the English phrasing has not been located in his Letters, essays, or other works. Seneca did write on related themes, including the relation of preparation to fortune, but the specific aphorism in this form appears to be a 20th-century formulation; American football coach Darrell Royal is among the earliest cited modern users.