Seneca the Younger Quotes on Mind
Seneca's Stoic philosophy is in large part a discipline of the mind, and the quotes gathered here, drawn from his letters and moral essays, set out its main themes. A central insight is that suffering is often self-produced: we suffer more often in imagination than in reality, tormented by anticipated evils that never arrive. Seneca holds that the mind can be made unconquerable, strengthened by difficulty as the body is strengthened by labour, and that it should be the judge of what is genuinely good rather than trusting the testimony of the senses. He also warns against the restlessness of a hunted mind and counsels that the mind, like the body, needs leisure and renewal. For Seneca, mastering one's own mind is the precondition of a tranquil life.
Quotes
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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) -
“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. -
“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 -
“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 -
“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)