Top 500 Seneca the Younger Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

203. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

205. “Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

207. “Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.”

— Seneca the Younger

208. “On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.”

— Seneca the Younger

209. “All my life I have been seeking to climb out of the pit of my besetting sins and I cannot do it and I never will unless a hand is let down to draw me up.”

— Seneca the Younger

210. “The tempest threatens before it comes; houses creak before they fall.”

— Seneca the Younger

211. “There’s no delight in owning anything unshared.”

— Seneca the Younger

212. “Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.”

— Seneca the Younger

213. “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.”

— Seneca the Younger

214. “Do you desire not to be angry? Be not inquisitive. He who inquires what is said of him only works out his own misery.”

— Seneca the Younger

215. “The highest duty and the highest proof of wisdom – that deed and word should be in accord.”

— Seneca the Younger

216. “Let me therefore live as if every moment were to be my last.”

— Seneca the Younger

217. “Men love their vices and hate them at the same time.”

— Seneca the Younger

218. “The best way to do good to ourselves is to do it to others; the right way to gather is to scatter.”

— Seneca the Younger

219. “Certain laws have not been written, but they are more fixed than all the written laws.”

— Seneca the Younger

220. “The mind should be allowed some relaxation, that it may return to its work all the better for the rest.”

— Seneca the Younger

221. “Speech is the index of the mind.”

— Seneca the Younger

222. “Small sorrows speak great ones are silent.”

— Seneca the Younger

223. “No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. Thou must live for another, if thou wishest to live for thyself.”

— Seneca the Younger

224. “No evil is without its compensation. The less money, the less trouble; the less favor, the less envy. Even in those cases which put us out of wits, it is not the loss itself, but the estimate of the loss that troubles us.”

— Seneca the Younger

225. “Be silent as to services you have rendered, but speak of favours you have received.”

— Seneca the Younger

226. “Everything hangs on one’s thinking.”

— Seneca the Younger

227. “He is a king who fears nothing, he is a king who desires nothing!”

— Seneca the Younger

228. “Courage leads to heaven; fear leads to death.”

— Seneca the Younger

229. “There is nothing wrong with changing a plan when the situation has changed.”

— Seneca the Younger

230. “Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness.”

— Seneca the Younger

231. “There is no power greater than true affection.”

— Seneca the Younger

232. “That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.”

— Seneca the Younger

233. “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

234. “Life without the courage to die is slavery.”

— Seneca the Younger

235. “He is ungrateful who denies that he has received a kindness which has been bestowed upon him; he is ungrateful who conceals it; he is ungrateful who makes no return for it; most ungrateful of all is he who forgets it.”

— Seneca the Younger

236. “Beauty is such a fleeting blossom, how can wisdom rely upon its momentary delight?”

— Seneca the Younger

237. “Freedom is not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling Fortune to enter the lists on equal terms.”

— Seneca the Younger

238. “You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind.”

— Seneca the Younger

239. “There in no one more unfortunate than the man who has never been unfortunate. for it has never been in his power to try himself.”

— Seneca the Younger

240. “Tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est. The whole of life is nothing but a journey to death.”

— Seneca the Younger

241. “Hold fast then to this sound and wholesome rule of life; indulge the body only as far as is needful for health.”

— Seneca the Younger

242. “Delay not; swift the flight of fortune’s greatest favours.”

— Seneca the Younger

243. “Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.”

— Seneca the Younger

244. “Let tears flow of their own accord; their flowing is not inconsistent with inward peace and harmony.”

— Seneca the Younger

245. “The declaration of love may come sooner than expected. Take time before you reciprocate as this may simply be a statement of what they expect from you.”

— Seneca the Younger

246. “The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and patient courage in adversity.”

— Seneca the Younger

247. “Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob.”

— Seneca the Younger

248. “You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.”

— Seneca the Younger

249. “The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach; but we shut our eyes, and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.”

— Seneca the Younger

250. “We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.”

— Seneca the Younger