Top 500 Seneca the Younger Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “No possession is gratifying without a companion.”

— Seneca the Younger

252. “The expression of truth is simplicity.”

— Seneca the Younger

253. “Every one has time if he likes. Business runs after nobody: people cling to it of their own free will and think that to be busy is a proof of happiness.”

— Seneca the Younger

254. “The rust of the mind is the destruction of genius.”

— Seneca the Younger

255. “It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.”

— Seneca the Younger

256. “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

257. “That loss is most discreditable which is caused by negligence.”

— Seneca the Younger

258. “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.”

— Seneca the Younger

259. “I do not sacrifice, but lend myself to business.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

261. “A man afraid of death will never play the part of a live man.”

— Seneca the Younger

262. “Whoever has nothing to hope, let him despair of nothing.”

— Seneca the Younger

263. “When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.”

— Seneca the Younger

264. “What were once vices are the fashion of the day.”

— Seneca the Younger

265. “Death’s the discharge of our debt of sorrow.”

— Seneca the Younger

266. “I am telling you to be a slow-speaking person.”

— Seneca the Younger

267. “He shows a greater mind who does not restrain his laughter, than he who does not deny his tears.”

— Seneca the Younger

268. “We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.”

— Seneca the Younger

269. “The body is not a permanent dwelling, but a sort of inn which is to be left behind when one perceives that one is a burden to the host.”

— Seneca the Younger

270. “Prosperity asks for fidelity; adversity exacts it.”

— Seneca the Younger

271. “A man who has taken your time recognises no debt; yet it is the one he can never repay.”

— Seneca the Younger

272. “There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.”

— Seneca the Younger

273. “Virtue depends partly upon training and partly upon practice; you must learn first, and then strengthen your learning by actions.”

— Seneca the Younger

274. “Authority founded on injustice is never of long duration.”

— Seneca the Younger

275. “Whereas a prolonged life is not necessarily better, a prolonged death is necessarily worse.”

— Seneca the Younger

276. “So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.”

— Seneca the Younger

277. “There is about wisdom a nobility and magnificence in the fact that she doesn’t just fall to a person’s lot, that each man owes her to his own efforts, that one doesn’t go to anyone other than oneself to find her.”

— Seneca the Younger

278. “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.”

— Seneca the Younger

279. “No one can keep a mask on long.”

— Seneca the Younger

280. “It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.”

— Seneca the Younger

281. “In whatever direction you turn, you will see God coming to meet you; nothing is void of him, he himself fills all his work.”

— Seneca the Younger

282. “Life, if thou knowest how to use it, is long enough.”

— Seneca the Younger

283. “One must steer, not talk.”

— Seneca the Younger

284. “You talk one way, you live another.”

— Seneca the Younger

285. “Just where death is expecting you is something we cannot know; so, for your part, expect him everywhere.”

— Seneca the Younger

286. “What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.”

— Seneca the Younger

287. “Leave in concealment what has long been concealed.”

— Seneca the Younger

288. “Know thyself; this is the great object.”

— Seneca the Younger

289. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

291. “There is the need for someone against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler, you won’t make the crooked straight.”

— Seneca the Younger

292. “The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena or essentially Too late.”

— Seneca the Younger

293. “Nothing deters a good man from doing what is honourable.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

295. “You can tell the character of every man when you see how he receives praise.”

— Seneca the Younger

296. “Freedom can’t be kept for nothing. If you set a high value on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else.”

— Seneca the Younger

297. “I was shipwrecked before I got aboard.”

— Seneca the Younger

298. “In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.”

— Seneca the Younger

299. “We live not according to reason, but according to fashion.”

— Seneca the Younger

300. “Eyes will not see when the heart wishes them to be blind.”

— Seneca the Younger