Seneca the Younger Quotes on Knowledge
Seneca's surviving Stoic writings — the moral essays, the natural-philosophical Naturales Quaestiones, and especially the 124 Letters to Lucilius — give Roman Stoicism its most stylistically distinguished philosophical voice and the most extensive direct first-century literary record of the school's practical epistemology. The framework treats genuine knowledge as the disciplined, ongoing self-examination by which the philosopher tests the automatic impressions of mind against the criterion of reason and the parallel patient study of the natural philosophy by which the rational ordering of the cosmos is exhibited. Seneca's letters to Lucilius are the principal ancient instance of philosophy presented as a long pedagogical correspondence.
Quotes
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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. -
“On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.”
Thyestes | lines 401-403; ( Chorus ). -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“The wise man is joyful, happy and calm, unshaken, he lives on a plane with the gods.”
Letter LIX: On Pleasure and Joy -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived.”
Letter XXIV: On despising death -
“Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself.”
Letter XXXII: On Progress