Top 500 Seneca the Younger Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.”

— Seneca the Younger

152. “The abundance of books is distraction.”

— Seneca the Younger

153. “What you think is the summit is only a step up.”

— Seneca the Younger

154. “Whatever begins, also ends.”

— Seneca the Younger

155. “It’s all in your headJ you have the power to make things seem hard or easy or even amusing. The choice is yours.”

— Seneca the Younger

156. “Resistance to oppression is second nature.”

— Seneca the Younger

157. “To govern was to serve, not to rule.”

— Seneca the Younger

158. “Poverty with joy isn’t poverty at all. The poor man is not one who has little, but one who hankers after more.”

— Seneca the Younger

159. “You have to persevere and fortify your pertinacity until the will to good becomes a disposition to good.”

— Seneca the Younger

160. “Be harsh with yourself at times.”

— Seneca the Younger

161. “Time is the one thing that is given to everyone in equal measure.”

— Seneca the Younger

162. “Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.”

— Seneca the Younger

163. “You must know for which harbor you are headed, if you are to catch the right wind to take you there.”

— Seneca the Younger

164. “There is nothing after death, and death itself is nothing.”

— Seneca the Younger

165. “True wisdom consists in not departing from nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model.”

— Seneca the Younger

166. “No choice maxims – we Stoics don’t practice that kind of window dressing.”

— Seneca the Younger

167. “Our fears are always more numerous than our dangers.”

— Seneca the Younger

168. “Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.”

— Seneca the Younger

169. “If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.”

— Seneca the Younger

170. “Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.”

— Seneca the Younger

171. “Death: There’s nothing bad about it at all except the thing that comes before it-the fear of it.”

— Seneca the Younger

172. “In war there is no prize for runner-up.”

— Seneca the Younger

173. “There is no genius free from some tincture of madness.”

— Seneca the Younger

174. “Those that are a friend to themselves are sure to be a friend to all.”

— Seneca the Younger

175. “There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.”

— Seneca the Younger

176. “Choose as a guide one whom you will admire more when you see him act than when you hear him speak.”

— Seneca the Younger

177. “Men can be divided into 2 groups: one that goes ahead and achieves something, and one that comes after and criticizes.”

— Seneca the Younger

178. “Death is a punishment to some, to others a gift and to many a favour.”

— Seneca the Younger

179. “Nature does not reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine we are initiated in her mysteries: we are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.”

— Seneca the Younger

180. “Long is the road to learning by precepts, but short and successful by examples.”

— Seneca the Younger

181. “For greed, all nature is too little.”

— Seneca the Younger

182. “He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.”

— Seneca the Younger

183. “Truth never perishes.”

— Seneca the Younger

184. “To be enslaved to oneself is the heaviest of all servitudes.-.”

— Seneca the Younger

185. “We are wrong in looking forward to death: in great measure it’s past already.”

— Seneca the Younger

186. “Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is to be expecting evil before it comes.”

— Seneca the Younger

187. “No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.”

— Seneca the Younger

188. “When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.”

— Seneca the Younger

189. “The path of increase is slow, but the road to ruin is rapid.”

— Seneca the Younger

190. “Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.”

— Seneca the Younger

191. “You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.”

— Seneca the Younger

192. “Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure, if you know how to use it. The best morsel is reserved for last.”

— Seneca the Younger

193. “See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.”

— Seneca the Younger

194. “No one can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”

— Seneca the Younger

195. “Economy is in itself a great source of revenue.”

— Seneca the Younger

196. “A dwarf is small even if he stands on a mountain; a colossus keeps his height, even if he stands in a well.”

— Seneca the Younger

197. “Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.”

— Seneca the Younger

198. “Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.”

— Seneca the Younger

199. “It is the sign of a weak mind to be unable to bear wealth.”

— Seneca the Younger

200. “All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.”

— Seneca the Younger