Seneca
Philosopher
Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist associated with the Julio-Claudian period. He advised Emperor Nero and is known for moral essays and letters on Stoic ethics. His works strongly influenced later Stoic and humanist thought.
Books by Seneca
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On the shortness of life
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Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
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Quotes by Seneca
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It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and--what will perhaps make you wonder more--it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.
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And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or wrinkles, he has not lived long – he has existed long. For what if you should think that man had had a long voyage who had been caught by a fierce storm as soon as he left harbour, and, swept hither and thither by a succession of winds that raged from different quarters, had been driven in a circle around the same course? Not much voyaging did he have, but much tossing about.
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There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.— Seneca
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Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things— eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies— since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.
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As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves
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It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.
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Fidelity purchased with money, money can destroy.
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It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
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The final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process. We reach death at that moment, but we have been a long time on the way.
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A woman is not beautiful when her ankle or arm wins compliments, but when her total appearance diverts admiration from the individual parts of her body.
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It's easier to get philosophers to agree than clocks.
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But is life really worth so much? Let us examine this; it's a different inquiry. We will offer no solace for so desolate a prison house; we will encourage no one to endure the overlordship of butchers. We shall rather show that in every kind of slavery, the road of freedom lies open. I will say to the man to whom it befell to have a king shoot arrows at his dear ones [Prexaspes], and to him whose master makes fathers banquet on their sons' guts [Harpagus]: 'What are you groaning for, fool?... Everywhere you look you find an end to your sufferings. You see that steep drop-off? It leads down to freedom. You see that ocean, that river, that well? Freedom lies at its bottom. You see that short, shriveled, bare tree? Freedom hangs from it.... You ask, what is the path to freedom? Any vein in your body.
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He who is brave is free
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How closely flattery resembles friendship! It not only apes friendship, but outdoes it, passing it in the race; with wide-open and indulgent ears it is welcomed and sinks to the depths of the heart, and it is pleasing precisely wherein it does harm.
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There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with
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Because thou writest me often, I thank thee ... Never do I receive a letter from thee, but immediately we are together.
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f you wish to put off all worry, assume that what you fear may happen is certainly going to happen.
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distringit librorum multitudo (the abundance of books is distraction)
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Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.
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The part of life we really live is small.' For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.
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