WIST

You cannot escape necessities, but you can overcome them.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On Allegiance to Virtue,” Moral Letters to Lucilius, 37.3 [tr. Gummere (1918)]

No man is crushed by hostile Fortune who is not first deceived by her smiles.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On Consolation to Helvia,” 5.5, Moral Essays [tr. Basore (1932)]

Good men should not shrink from hardships and difficulties, nor complain against fate; they should take in good part whatever happens and should turn it to good. Not what you endure, but how you endure, is important.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On Providence,” 2.4, Moral Essays [tr. J. Basore (1928)]

No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On Providence,” 4.16, Moral Essays [tr. J. Basore (1928)]

We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol’s ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, he is with you, he is within you.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
“On the God Within Us,” Moral Letters to Lucilius, 41.1 [tr. Gummere (1918)]

As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)
Often either unattributed or sometimes attributed to Seneca the Elder.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
(Attributed)

attr. by Aulus Gellius in Noctes Atticae, bk. 12, ch. 2, sct. 13 (2nd cent. A.D.).

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men
[Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros.]

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
De Providentia, 5, v. 9

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
De Tranquillitate Animi [On Tranquility of Mind]
Alt trans. by W.B. Langsdorf (1900): "Should I be surprised that dangers which have always surrounded me should at last attack me? A great part of mankind, when about to sail, do not think of a storm. I shall never be ashamed of a reporter of bad news in a good cause."

It is dangerous for a man too suddenly, or too easily, to believe himself. Wherefore let us examine, watch, observe, and inspect our own hearts; for we are ourselves our own greatest flatterers: we should every night call ourselves to account, “What infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passion opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired?” Our vices will abate of themselves, if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life)
Trans. Roger L'Estrange, Seneca's Morals: By Way of Abstract (1834). Full text. Sometimes incorrectly quoted as "Our vices will abort of themselves ...."

True happiness is founded upon virtue.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life), 16.1
Moral Essays, trans. John Basore (1932)

Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Sometimes attributed to Seneca the Elder (Marcus Annaeus Seneca), his father.

The willing, Destiny guides them; the unwilling, Destiny drags them.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, “On Obedience to the Universal Will”
Actually translating Cleanthes. Alt. trans: "Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along." "Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling." R. Gummere: "Aye, the willing soul / Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along." Source. Sometimes attributed to Seneca the Elder.

Just as the mother’s womb holds us for ten months not in preparation for itself but for the region to which we seem to be discharged when we are capable of drawing breath and surviving in the open, so in the span extending from infancy to old age we are ripening for another birth. Another beginning awaits us, another status. We cannot yet bear heaven’s light except at intervals; look unfalteringly, then, to that decisive hour which is the body’s last but not the soul’s.

All that lies about you look upon as the luggage in a posting station; you must push on. At your departure Nature strips you as bare as at your entry. You cannot carry out more than you brought in; indeed, you must lay down a good part of what you brought into life. The envelope of skin, which is your last covering, will be stripped off; the flesh and the blood which is diffused and courses through the whole of it will be stripped off; the bones and sinews which are the structural support of the shapeless and precarious mass will be stripped off.

That day which you dread as the end is your birth into eternity.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 102

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 16, sec. 7

The poor one is not the man who has little, but the man who craves more.
[Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.]

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 2, l. 6
alt trans. "It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."

For it is both a vice to believe everyone and no-one.
[Utrumque enim vitium est et omnibus credere et nulli.]

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 3, “On True and False Friendship”
Alt trans. by R.M. Gummere: "It is equally faulty to trust everyone and to trust no one. "

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 4, sec. 6

Whatever the quality of my works may be, read them as if I were still seeking, and were not aware of, the truth, and were seeking it obstinately, too.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 45, sec. 4, “On Sophistical Argumentation” (tr. R. Gummere (1918))

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 71
Trans. by R. Gummere, Moral Epistles (1917-25). Full text. Alt trans.: "If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."

Life’s like a play; it’s not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 77
Alt trans. by R. Gummere: "It is with life as it is with a play, - it matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is." Full text.

Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 83, sec. 18

No one is free who is a slave to the body.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 92, sec. 33, “On the Happy Life” (tr. R. Gummere (1918)]

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 95, sec. 2

Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Hercules Furens, Part I, l.255 [Amphitryon] [tr. Miller (1917)]

Full text.

Alt. trans.: "Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."

 

Who makes a timid request invites denial.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Hippolytus, l. 590 [tr. Miller (1917)]

The worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies.

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Minor Dialogues, “Of Peace of Mind” [tr. A. Steart (1889)]