Seneca
Seneca
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.
acts both cause happiness itself matter mind
The mind is a matter over every kind of fortune; itself acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and misery.
afraid cease hope
You cease to be afraid when you cease to hope; for hope is accompanied by fear.
ability art endure foremost kings
The foremost art of kings is the ability to endure hatred.
bring cease death exist final hour itself merely reach time
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.
example learning precept road short
The road to learning by precept is long, but by example short and effective.
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.
cringe defiance face ought shall surrender
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
nature requires
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.
brought call mastered ourselves passions temptation themselves vices
We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.
false
True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.
anticipate foolish wretched
Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.
good great happiness happy man master needs powerful wisdom within
Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
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.