Looking for the best and inspirational Seneca quotes?
Seneca is an ancient philosopher who wrote several philosophical works. He was well-versed in Greek and Roman literature, and his moral teachings are often presented as the basic tenets of Stoicism.
He believed that happiness is derived from an understanding of good and wisdom from a sense of what is bad. He thought that humans should pursue pleasure and avoid pain in their lives.
His philosophy focuses on what we can control rather than on events external to us. It believes in a person’s ability to make rational decisions based on objective reasoning and personal experience.
Seneca is considered one of the most influential philosophers amongst other Stoic philosophers – he is referred to as “the father of Western ethics.” His writings are infamously known for their rhetorical power and cognitive subtlety.
Here is a list of his inspiring quotes that will give you some helpful information about how to make the most out of your life
93 Inspiring Seneca Quotes To Learn Powerful Life Lesson
“Wealth is the slave of the wise. The master of the fool.”
“There is no genius without a touch of madness.”
“But life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”
“There is nothing more despicable than an old man who has no other proof than his age to offer of his having lived long in the world.”
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
“The way is long if one follows precepts, but short..if one follows patterns.”
“Life is long if you know how to use it.”
“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.”
“It’s not that we have a short time to live but that we waste a lot of it.”
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”
“We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
“Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.”
“The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.”
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”
“The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for crisis.”
“Time heals what reason cannot.”
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
“Life’s like a play; it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.”
“To wish to progress is the largest part of progress.”
“Everything that exceeds the bounds of moderation has an unstable foundation.”
“Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.”
“Every night before going to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness did I overcome today? What virtue did I acquire?”
“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. … The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
“If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich.”
“There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with.”
“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”
“Hang on to your youthful enthusiasms — you’ll be able to use them better when you’re older.”
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
“It is, of course, better to know useless things than to know nothing.”
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
“It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
“There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.”
“True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.”
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
“Life is never incomplete if it is an honorable one. At whatever point you leave life, if you leave it in the right way, it is whole.”
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”
“What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.”
“Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.”
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so, wants nothing. ”
“You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire.”
“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.”
“While we teach, we learn.”
“The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.”
“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.”
“The only thing that belongs to us is the time.”
“All cruelty springs from weakness.”
“Freedom is not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms.”
“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.”
“Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
“You want to live but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying and tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?”
“He who is brave is free.”
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.”
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. ”
“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
“Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.”
“No man was ever wise by chance.”
“We are more often frightened than hurt; we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
“We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.”
“Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.”
“I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.”
“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”
“The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.”
“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
“It is quality rather that quantity that matters.”
“A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.”
“If you wish to be loved, love.”
“Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.”
“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.”
“Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.”
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
“Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.”
“Economy is too late when you are at the bottom of your purse.”
“Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.”
“I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land.”
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”
“True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present without anxious dependence upon the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient.”
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”
“Time discovers truth.”
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor.”
“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”
“He is most powerful who has power over himself.”
“To be always fortunate, and to pass through life with a soul that has never known sorrow, is to be ignorant of one half of nature.”
“Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.”
