Seneca the Younger Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Seneca the Younger, organized by topic.
Browse Seneca the Younger by topic
Seneca the Younger on Death
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“On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.”
Thyestes | lines 401-403; ( Chorus ). -
“Alternate translation: Death weighs on him who is known to all, but dies unknown to himself. ( The Philisophical Life by James Miller).”
Thyestes -
“Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.”
Letter IV: On the terrors of death -
“Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.”
Letter LXI: On meeting death cheerfully | Line 2. -
“Great also are the souls of the defenders—men who know that, as long as the path to death lies open, the blockade is not complete, men who breathe their last in the arms of liberty.”
Letter LXVI: On Various Aspects of Virtue -
“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?”
Letter I: On Saving Time
Seneca the Younger on Freedom
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“He who is brave is free.”
Seneca the Younger on Happiness
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“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est. -
“The wise man is joyful, happy and calm, unshaken, he lives on a plane with the gods.”
Letter LIX: On Pleasure and Joy -
“Virtue alone affords everlasting and peace-giving joy ; even if some obstacle arise, it is but like an intervening cloud, which floats beneath the sun but never prevails against it.”
Letter XXVII
Seneca the Younger on Justice
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“Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue ; good men obey the bad , might is right and fear oppresses law . lines 251-253; ( Amphitryon )”
rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor. -
“Alternate translation: Might makes right. (translator unknown).”
rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.
Seneca the Younger on Knowledge
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“Seneca, On Anger (De Ira) 2.34.5 (translated by John W. Basore)”
To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind. -
“Quaeris Alcidae parem? Nemo est nisi ipse.”
Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself. line 84; ( Juno ) -
“Do you seek Alcides' equal? None is, except himself. line 84; ( Juno )”
Quaeris Alcidae parem? Nemo est nisi ipse. -
“rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.”
Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue ; good men obey the bad , might is right and fear oppresses law . lines 251-253; ( Amphitryon ) | Alternate translation: Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. (translator unknown) | Alternate translation: Might makes right. (translator unknown). -
“inveniet viam aut faciet.”
He [Hercules] will find a way — or make one. line 276; ( Amphitryon ) | In this line, Seneca adapts a well-known saying "Inveniam viam aut faciam" (commonly attributed to the Carthaginian general Hannibal ) for use in his drama -
“He [Hercules] will find a way — or make one. line 276; ( Amphitryon )”
inveniet viam aut faciet. -
“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
Letter LXXI: On the supreme good | Line 2 -
“Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. 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.”
Letter VII: On crowds | Line 8. -
“What is wisdom ? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.”
Letter XX: On practicing what you preach | Line 5 -
“If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.”
Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind | Line 12 -
“Here, Seneca uses the same observation that Sallust made regarding friendship (in his historical account of the Catilinarian conspiracy, Bellum Catilinae [XX.4]) to define wisdom.”
Letter XX: On practicing what you preach -
“Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself.”
Letter XXXII: On Progress
Seneca the Younger on Life
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“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
Letters to Lucilius, 1 -
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Aliquando enim et vivere fortiter facere est -
Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“Our care should not be to have lived long, but to have lived enough.”
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“Just as we suffer from excess in all things, so we suffer from excess in literature; thus we learn our lessons, not for life, but for the lecture room.”
Letter CVI: On the corporeality of virtue | Line 12 -
“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough.”
Moral Essays | De Brevitate Vitae ("On the Shortness of Life", trans. John W. Basore), Ch. 1 -
“Pyrrhus: No law the wretched captive's life doth spare. Agamemnon: What law forbids not, let this shame forbid. Pyrrhus: 'Tis victor's right to do whate'er he will. Pyrrhus: Then should he will the least who most can do.”
Troades(The Trojan Women) | lines 333-336 -
“You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived.”
Letter XXIV: On despising death
Seneca the Younger on Love
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“For love of bustle is not industry – it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.”
Letter III: On true and false friendship | Line 5. -
“No man can suffer both severely and for a long time; Nature, who loves us most tenderly, has so constituted us as to make pain either endurable or short.”
Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind
Seneca the Younger on Mind
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“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Plura sunt, Lucili, quae nos terrent quam quae premunt, et saepius opinione quam re laboramus. -
Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
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“To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind.”
Seneca, On Anger (De Ira) 2.34.5 (translated by John W. Basore) -
“Our feeling about every obligation depends in each case upon the spirit in which the benefit is conferred; we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will which prompted it.”
Letter LXXXI: On benefits | Line 6 -
“This is the worst trait of minds rendered arrogant by prosperity, they hate those whom they have injured.”
Moral Essays | De Ira (On Anger): Book 2, cap. 33, line 6
Seneca the Younger on Politics
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“The customs of that most criminal nation have gained such strength that they have now been received in all lands. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors.”
De Superstitione(On Superstition) | Apostle Paul: A Polite Bribe by Robert Orlando; p. 108
Seneca the Younger on Time
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
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“Who is everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends .”
Letter II: On discursiveness in reading | Line 2. -
“The much occupied man has no time for wantonness, and it is an obvious commonplace that the evils of leisure can be shaken off by hard work.”
Letter LVI: On quiet and study | Line 9 -
“The mind must be indulged, and leisure must be given from time to time, which is the place of food and strength.”
Dialogi de Tranquillitate Animi(Concerning Peace of Mind)
Seneca the Younger on Truth
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“We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.”
Letter XCV: On the usefulness of basic principles | Line 2. -
“I do not trust my eyes to tell me what a man is: I have a better and more trustworthy light by which I can distinguish what is true from what is false: let the mind find out what is good for the mind.”
Moral Essays | De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life): cap. 2, line 2
Seneca the Younger on Virtue
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”
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“Alternate translation: Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. (translator unknown)”
rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor. -
“You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise .”
Letter LII: On choosing our teachers | Line 12. -
“Who, then, can be more ignorant of nature than he who classes this cruel and hurtful vice as belonging to her best and most polished work?”
On Anger to Novatus
Things actually not said by Seneca the Younger
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Seneca the Younger but are in fact from someone else. Did Seneca the Younger say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
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Did Seneca the Younger say this? No.
“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.
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Did Seneca the Younger say this? No.
“Servare cives, major est virtus patriae patri.”
To preserve the life of citizens, is the greatest virtue in the father of his country. The quote is from a Roman tragedy Octavia ; Act 2, Line 444, where Seneca advises Nero against carrying out his tyrannical plans. Seneca's attribution to the play is generally discredited by modern scholarship.
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Did Seneca the Younger say this? No.
“If you wish to be loved, love.”
Seneca quotes this in Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium ; Epistle IX and attributes it to Hecato
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Did Seneca the Younger say this? No.
“To preserve the life of citizens, is the greatest virtue in the father of his country.”
The quote is from a Roman tragedy Octavia ; Act 2, Line 444, where Seneca advises Nero against carrying out his tyrannical plans. Seneca's attribution to the play is generally discredited by modern scholarship.
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Did Seneca the Younger say this? No.
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
As quoted in What Great Men Think About Religion (1945) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 342. No original source for this has been found in the works of Seneca, or published translations. It is likely that the quote originates with Edward Gibbon who wrote: The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful. — Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Vol. I , Ch. II Elbert Hubbard would claim in 1904 ( Little Journeys: To the homes of great philosophers: Seneca ) that Gibbon was "making a free translation from Seneca". (Disputed.)