Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Senecawas a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature...
NationalityRoman
ProfessionStatesman
brainy cannot gem man nor polished
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
certainty delay depend depends forward greatest loss relinquish time time-and-time-management
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.
favorable man port wind
If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him.
contentment deprived endure endured happy highest lowest man misfortune
Happy the man who can endure the highest and the lowest fortune. He, who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity, has deprived misfortune of its power.
angry ill mad man nor physician sick
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.
man sick
It is medicine, not scenery, for which a sick man must go searching.
adversity behold brave conflict contest man matched worthy
Behold a contest worthy of a god, a brave man matched in conflict with adversity
age-and-aging among declining embrace extreme gradually love maintain pleasure reached sweetest
As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.
leaders-and-leadership
He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.
amiable ancestry born unless
No one is better born than another, unless they are born with better abilities and a more amiable disposition.
abandoned both desires limits moderation nature resources restricted sign utter
That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this - that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.
according dictates nature notions
If you live according to the dictates of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the notions of man, you will never be rich.
powerful
He is the most powerful who has himself, in his power.
insult
It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.