Seneca the Younger Quotes on Virtue
Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and the moral essays — On the Shortness of Life, On the Tranquility of Mind, On Anger, On Mercy — are the most personal extant Stoic ethical writing. The principal themes are the Stoic doctrine that virtue alone is sufficient for happiness, the daily discipline by which the would-be sage trains attention and judgment against the false impressions habit and culture supply, and the constant memento mori that frames every present action against the brevity of the human life-span. The framework is orthodox Stoic ethics in substance, but Seneca's prose — sharp, aphoristic, addressed to a single reader — gave the school's ethical doctrine its most accessible literary form.
Quotes
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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. -
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Aliquando enim et vivere fortiter facere est -
Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”
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Attributed to Seneca the Younger:
“He who is brave is free.”
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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: 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 -
“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