By Maxime Lagacé
Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.
Top 10 Quotes – On Life – On Happiness – On Hardship – On Death – On Anger – Dark – Inspiring – Fake – Visuals – Video
Discover 107+ of the best Seneca Quotes (On Life, Happiness, Hardship, Death, Anger, etc.)
What you’ll learn on this page?
- How to value your time
- How to have a stronger mind
- How to be indifferent to external events
Seneca was indeed a master at being indifferent to things he couldn’t control.
But here’s the kicker:
He was also a master at doing his best, right here and right now.
Despite hardships.
Despite death lurking by.
I hope you’ll enjoy his life-changing quotes as much as I did.
Seneca is one of the few Stoics (with Marcus Aurelius) that shaped how I approach life today.
Let’s begin!
Top 10 Seneca Quotes
The day a man becomes superior to pleasure, he will also be superior to pain. Seneca
He who is brave is free. Seneca
We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Seneca
As long as you live, keep learning how to live. Seneca
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult. Seneca
It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it. Seneca
I would rather offend you with the truth than please you with flattery. Seneca
Prosperity does not elevate the sage and adversity does not depress him. Seneca
Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it. Seneca
Seneca Quotes About Life And Time
It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Seneca
Hold every hour in your grasp. Seneca
Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. Seneca
People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy. Seneca
You are living as if destined to live forever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much time has already passed, but squander it as though you had a full and overflowing supply. Seneca
How stupid to forget our mortality, and put off sensible plans to our fiftieth and sixtieth years, aiming to begin life from a point at which few have arrived! Seneca
The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today. Seneca
Nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing. We have to be more careful in preserving what will cease at an unknown point. Seneca
Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future. Seneca
Prove your words by your deeds. Seneca
While we wait for life, life passes. Seneca
The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately. Seneca
External goods are of trivial importance and without much influence in either direction. Seneca
But when [time] is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. Seneca
Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by. Seneca
And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay. Seneca
We should not, like sheep, follow the herd of creatures in front of us, making our way where others go, not where we ought to go. Seneca
What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? Seneca
The life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Seneca
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. Seneca
Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. Seneca
Seneca Quotes About Happiness And Unhappiness
How pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented. Seneca
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. Seneca
No one can have whatever he wants. What he can do is not want what he doesn’t have, and cheerfully enjoy what comes his way. Seneca
It was nature’s intention that there should be no need of great equipment for a good life: every individual can make himself happy. Seneca
You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you. Seneca
No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself. Seneca
We are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago. Seneca
The wise man enjoys the giving more than the recipient enjoys the receiving. Seneca
There is not a man who, when he has benefited his neighbour, has not benefited himself. Seneca
On his happy and calm mind: It bursts through to the heights and enjoys the noblest sight of divine things and, mindful of its own immortality, it ranges over all that has been and will be throughout all ages. Seneca
To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden. Seneca
The greatest wealth, is a poverty of desire. Seneca
Seneca Quotes About Hardship
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. Seneca
Whatever can happen at any time can happen today. Seneca
Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember. Seneca
You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived. Seneca
Accept in an unruffled spirit that which is inevitable. Seneca
All life is slavery. Therefore each one must accustom himself to his own condition and complain about it as little as possible, and lay hold of whatever good is to be found near him. Seneca
Apply reason to difficulties; harsh circumstances can be softened, narrow limits can be widened, and burdensome things can be made to press less severely on those who bear them cleverly. Seneca
With the omission of those things which either cannot be done, or can only be done with difficulty, let us follow the things which are placed near at hand and which offer encouragement to our hopes; but let us remember that all things are equally unimportant, presenting a different appearance on the outside, but equally empty within. Seneca
Those whom an unfavorable fortune has placed in a critical position will be safer if they eliminate pride from their proud circumstances and bring down their fortune as much as possible to a lowly state. Seneca
Not because things are hard, that we do not confront. But by not confronting, we make things hard. Seneca
Why need we weep over parts of our life? The whole of it calls for tears: new miseries assail us before we have freed ourselves from the old ones. Seneca
He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary. Seneca
No easy way leads from the earth to heaven. Seneca
Seneca Quotes About Death And Grief
Whatever you do, keep death in mind. Seneca
Time heals what reason cannot. Seneca
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes, as well. Seneca
The grief that has been conquered by reason is calmed for ever. I am not therefore going to prescribe for you those remedies which I know many people have used, that you divert or cheer yourself by a long or pleasant journey abroad, or spend a lot of time carefully going through your accounts and administering your estate, or constantly be involved in some new activity. All those things help only for a short time; they do not cure grief but hinder it. But I would rather end it than distract it. Seneca
Your grief should not be intruded upon while it was fresh and agonizing, in case the consolations themselves should rouse and inflame it. Seneca
For an illness too nothing is more harmful than premature treatment. Seneca
I was waiting until your grief of itself should lose its force and, being softened by time to endure remedies, it would allow itself to be touched and handled. Seneca
All your sorrows have been wasted on you if you have not yet learned how to be wretched. Seneca
Every great and overpowering grief must take away the capacity to choose words, since it often stifles the voice itself. Seneca
You are scared of dying — and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different than being dead? Seneca
A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. Seneca
Seneca Quotes About Anger, Revenge, And Fear
The greatest remedy for anger is delay. Seneca
Ignorance is the cause of fear. Seneca
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it. Seneca
Savage, implacable anger does not suit a king because he does not maintain much superiority over the person with whom he levels himself by getting angry. Seneca
Revenge is an admission of pain: a mind that is bowed by injury is not a great mind; its course lies wholly toward the future. Seneca
The person who renounces revenge when he can easily take it wins unqualified praise for his mercy. Seneca
The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears. Seneca
Dark And Deep Seneca Quotes
All cruelty springs from weakness. Seneca
There is no genius without a touch of madness. Seneca
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage. Seneca
He who does not prevent a crime, when he can, encourages it. Seneca
The man who hopes for naught at least has naught to fear. Seneca
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?” Seneca
Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack. Seneca
Who is everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. Seneca
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
Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long. Seneca
Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant. Seneca
What is harder than rock? What is softer than water? Yet hard rocks are hollowed out by soft water. Seneca
I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him. Seneca
No one, after all, can wear a mask for long. Pretence quickly lapses into its true nature. Seneca
The things you run from are inside you. Seneca
All ferocity is born from weakness. Seneca
Time discovers truth. Seneca
Inspiring Seneca Quotes
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. Seneca
Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Seneca
No one is deserving of love who is incapable of bestowing it upon others. Seneca
I shall be more pleased with myself for being happy in conditions which normally make men wretched. Seneca
Virtue depends partly on training and partly on practice. You must learn first, and then strengthen what you’ve learned by practice. Seneca
Whatever is good for us should be discussed often and frequently brought to mind, so that it may be not just familiar to us, but also ready for use. Seneca
Love in its essence is spiritual fire. Seneca
It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable. Seneca
Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Seneca
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer. Seneca
I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them. Seneca
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. Seneca
No man was ever wise by chance. Seneca
Fake (or misattributed) Seneca Quotes
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Seneca Visuals
Many men will meet me who are drunkards, lustful, ungrateful, greedy, and excited by the frenzy of ambition. Seneca
Conclusion
The man who is not puffed up in good times does not collapse either when they change. His fortitude is already tested and he maintains a mind unconquered in the face of either condition: for in the midst of prosperity he has tried his own strength against adversity. Seneca
Seneca Quotes Video
Further Readings
- Topic: Life
- More Stoics like Seneca
- 75 Words of Wisdom From The Best Minds (Ever)
- 70 Alain de Botton Quotes (On life, Happiness, Success)
- 115 Philosophy Quotes From The Best Philosophers
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (wikipedia.org)
- Letters From A Stoic, By Seneca (Amazon book)
- On the Shortness of Life, By Seneca (Amazon book)
- More Seneca books on Amazon
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I hope you liked these great Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger) quotes.
If you did, please make sure you share them with one of your friends who could benefit from the stoic mindset!
