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Seneca Letters:

 

"Whatever years are behind us are in death's hands"

 

"Lay hold on today's task, you  will no need to depend so much on  upon tomorrows' "

 

"I do not regard a man as poor, if what little remains is enough for him"

 

"It is not the man who has too little, but the one who craves more that is poor"

 

 

"the limiting of desires also cures fears: cease to hope, cease to fear"

 

"the gifts of fortune, we think we hold them in our hands, but they hold us in theirs"

 

""what chance has made yours is not really yours"

 

"he can do without friends, not that he desires to not have them"

 

"unblessed is those who think they are unblessed"

"how comforting is it to tire out of one's appetites, and be done with them"

 

"Death should be examined by both young and old"

 

""we suffer more in imagination than in reality"

 

"We are in the habit of imagining, exaggerating, and anticipating sorrow"

 

"The mind sometimes fashions false shapes of evil when there are no signs that point to that evil"

 

"the fool is always getting ready to live"

"avoid 3 things: hatred, jealousy and scorn"

 

"he who needs richest least, enjoys riches most"

 

"the wise man regards reason for all his actions, not the results.  The beginning is our own power, fortune decides the issue, but I shall not allow her to pass sentence upon myself"

 

"what one avoids, another condemns"

 

"limit the flesh, allow free play to the spirit"

 

"if we could be satisfied with anything, we would have been satisfied long ago'

 

"away with these treacherous goods.  They look better to those who hope for them than those who obtained them."

 

"why should I demand of Fortune that she give rather than demand for Myself that I should not crave?"

"this ideal philosophy, which you are delaying and putting off second to other interests, should be secured first of all- you should begin with it"

 

"In every age, what is enough remains the same"

 

"fault is not in the wealth, but the mind itself"

 

"we shall be rich with all the more comfort, if we learn about how far poverty is from being a burden"

 

"it is the highest pleasure to reduce one's needs to so little that no unfairness of fortune can snatch it away"

"though a certain man spoke some truth it doesn't belong to them but is the property of all men"

 

"one does not discover principles, they find them"

 

"there are many men who hold fast to slavery"

 

"it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but in no man's power to live long"

 

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"strip things of all that disturbs and confuses , and see what is at bottom; you will comprehend that they contain nothing fearful except actual fear"

 

"we do not suddenly fall onto death, but advance towards it in slight degrees; we die everyday"

 

"fear of death robs you of your life of peace"

 

"the wise man should not beat a hasty retreat from life, he should make a becoming exit.  Above all he should avoid the weakness- the lust for death"

"the things we actually need are free for all; otherwise cheap; natures craves only bread and water.   No one is poor according to this standard.  When a man has limited his desires to these bounds, he can challenge the happiness of Jove himself"

 

"he who has learned how to die has unlearned slavery"

 

"your debates and your learned talks, your maxims garnered from the teachings of the wise, your cultured conversation- all those afford no real proof of the strength of your soul"

 

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"the favor of ignoble men can only win by ignoble means"

 

"it takes trickery to win popular approval, you must make them think that you are one of them"

 

"death is always the same distance from us.  if you fear death, you must fear it always"

 

"stick to your purpose, even if a crowd seeks to surround and distract you"

 

"What makes men greedy for the future ?  They who have not found themselves"

 

"obtain an understanding of what is truly good..and have no need for additional years"

"speech that deals with the truth must be unadorned and plain"

 

"we regard as free gifts the things for which we spend our very lives"

 

"it is not the loss that troubles, but a notion of loss"

 

"the past does not belong to us"

 

"the sum and substance of a happy life is freedom from care and confidence"

 

 

"proof of truth does not lie in clever argument"

 

"quibbling about words in argument is worthless"

 

"I propose you value them based on their character, not their duties.   Each man acquires their character for himself, but accident assigns them their duties"

 

"when your time is so scant, what madness it is to learn superfluous things"

 

"the place where one lives cannot secure tranquility; it is the mind that makes things bearable to itself"

"what benefit is a quiet neighborhood if our emotions are in an uproar?"

 

"so with greed, ambition, and other evils of the mind.. they do the most harm when under the pretense of soundness"

 

"he who dies because he is in pain is a coward. But he who lives just to breathe out the pain is a fool"

 

"we are always changing.  We are the not the same today as yesterday.  Of things we see, nothing is fixed.  Even as I comment on this change, I am changed myself"

 

"there is pleasure in being in one's company, as long as possible, when a man has made himself worth enjoying"

 

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"i'm going to record this to the best of my abilities as i can muster, and whether or not anyone sees it, I will be fulfilled by the effort i put into it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Each man, according to his lot in life, is stultified by flattery"

 

"what hinders us most is that we are too ready to be satisfied with ourselves.  Thus it follows that we are unwilling to be reformed, as we believe ourselves to be the best of men"

 

""We do not combat folly enough, and we do not struggle towards salvation with all our might.  We do not put sufficient trust in the discoveries of the wise, we do not drink their words with an open heart.  We approach this great problem with too trifling a spirit"

"the wise are never deprived of joy.  This joy springs from the knowledge that you possess the virtues .  None but the brave, the just, the self-restrained, can rejoice"

 

"That which fortune has not given, she cannot take away"

 

"It is not in the power of another to bestow, thus it is subject to their whims"

 

"great approval by others is bought at the cost of great mental disquietude"

 

 

 

 

"we must make ready for death before we make ready for life"

 

"let us so set our minds so that we may desire whatever is demanded of us by circumstances, and above that we may reflect upon our end without sadness"

 

"the shortcut to riches is to despise riches"

 

"Fortune has taken away, but Fortune has given"

 

"For I had them (lost friends) as if I should one day lose them; I have lost them as if I have them still"

 

" It is better to replace those that have been lost than weep for them"

 

"the body is beautified by the comeliness of the soul"

 

"only take retirement if you have greater and more beautiful activities than you have resigned"

 

"fortune has all power over one who lives, she has no power over those that know how to die.."

"the wise man's joy depends on nothing external.   No boon from man or fortune"

 

"do not postpone the study of philosophy until you are retired"

 

"resist the affairs that occupy our time; put them out of the way"

 

"What do I mean by health?  If the mind is content with itself and has confidence in itself.  If it understands that all those things that men hope for , all the benefits they fight for, are ultimately of no importance to a life of happiness.  Under such conditions, the mind is sound."

"any man who deems other things be good, puts himself in the power of fortune"

 

"if one wishes to win the way to safety, there is but one road: despise externals and be contented with what is honorable"

 

"as long as your virtue is unharmed, you will not feel the loss of anything that is withdrawn from you"

 

"what greater madness than to be tortured by the future- to invite and bring in wretchness- and not save your strength for actual suffering?"

 

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"let speech harmonize with life.  Say what we feel and feel what we say"

 

"he is not happy with just knowing, but also doing"

 

"what's freedom?  Not fearing men or gods.  Not craving wickedness or excess.  Possessing supreme power over oneself , and it is a priceless good to be a master of oneself"

 

"that alone is good which makes the soul better"

 

"if an evil is pondered upon beforehand, its blow is gentle when it comes"

 

"Consider his soul, its quality and its stature, and thus is this "greatness" borrowed or its own"