Top 500 Seneca the Younger Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “No man is born wise; but wisdom and virtue require a tutor; though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master.”

— Seneca the Younger

252. “A great fortune is a great slavery.”

— Seneca the Younger

253. “That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this – that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.”

— Seneca the Younger

254. “Refuse to let the thought of death bother you: nothing is grim when we have escaped that fear.”

— Seneca the Younger

255. “Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.”

— Seneca the Younger

256. “The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man. It is more powerful than external circumstances.”

— Seneca the Younger

257. “Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so shall I choose my death when I am about to depart from life.”

— Seneca the Younger

258. “No possession is gratifying without a companion.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

260. “Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures.”

— Seneca the Younger

261. “The expression of truth is simplicity.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

263. “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

264. “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

266. “Virtue is that perfect good, which is the complement of a happy life; the only immortal thing that belongs to mortality.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

277. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

281. “Luck is preparation multiplied by opportunity.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

285. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

288. “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

289. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

291. “One must steer, not talk.”

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

297. “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

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger

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

— Seneca the Younger