Seneca the Younger: Trending quotes (page 5)

“What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.”
Quid ergo? non ibo per priorum vestigia? ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam. Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri sed duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata; multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est.

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXXIII

Men , Truth , Travel

“Friendship is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm”
Amicitia semper prodest, amor aliquando etiam nocet

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXXV

Love , Friendship , Help

“Don't ask for what you'll wish you hadn't got.”
postea noli rogare quod inpetrare nolueris.

Seneca the Younger

Seneca himself states that he is quoting a 'common saying' here.
Alternate translation: Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got. (translator unknown).
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCV: On the usefulness of basic principles, Line 1

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”
Sapiens vivit quantum debet, non quantum potest.

Seneca the Younger

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXX: On the proper time to slip the cable, Line 4.

“He who, when he may, forbids not sin, commands it.”
Qui non vetat peccare cum possit, iubet.

Seneca the Younger Troades

Troades (The Trojan Women), line 291 (Agamemnon)
Alternate translation: He who does not prevent a crime, when he can, encourages it. (translator unknown).
Tragedies

“A great step towards independence is a good-humored stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment.”
Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter et contumeliae patiens.

Seneca the Younger

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CXXIII: On the conflict between pleasure and virtue, Line 3.

“No man expects such exact fidelity as a traitor.”
fidei acerrimus exactor est perfidus

Seneca the Younger Moral Essays

De Ira (On Anger): Book 2, cap. 28, line 7.
Moral Essays

“It is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask.”
Sera parsimonia in fundo est.

Seneca the Younger

Letter I: On saving time, line 5
This quote is often directly attributed to Seneca, but he is referring to lines 368-369 of Works and Days by the Greek poet Hesiod : Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the lees. (translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White)
Alternate translation: Thrift comes too late when you find it at the bottom of your purse. (translator unknown)
Alternate translation: It is too late to be thrifty when the bottom has been reached. (translator unknown).
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter I: On Saving Time

“Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening.”
sic vive cum hominibus tamquam deus videat, si loquere cum deo tamquam homines audiant.

Seneca the Younger

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter X: On living to oneself, Line 5.

Men , God

“A great fortune is a great slavery.”
Magna servitus est magna fortuna. / Magna servitus est magna servitus

Seneca the Younger book To Polybius

From Ad Polybium De Consolatione (Of Consolation, To Polybius), chap. VI, line 5
Other works

“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?”
Quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat, qui diem aestimet, qui intellegat se cotidie mori?

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter I: On Saving Time

Understanding , Time

“On him does death lie heavily, who, but too well known to all, dies to himself unknown.”
Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi

Seneca the Younger Thyestes

Illi mors gravis incubat
Qui notus nimis omnibus
Ignotus moritur sibi
Thyestes, lines 401-403; (Chorus).
Alternate translation: Death weighs on him who is known to all, but dies unknown to himself. (The Philisophical Life by James Miller).
Tragedies

Death , Lie

“Nothing lasts forever, few things even last for long: all are susceptible of decay in one way or another; moreover all that begins also ends.”
Nihil perpetuum, pauca diuturna sunt; aliud alio modo fragile est, rerum exitus variantur, ceterum quicquid coepit et desinit.

Seneca the Younger book To Polybius

From Ad Polybium De Consolatione (Of Consolation, To Polybius), chap. I; translation based on work of Aubrey Stewart
Other works

Way

“It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.”
Confragosa in fastigium dignitatis via est.

Seneca the Younger

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXIV: On gathering ideas, Line 13

Motivational , Success , Inspirational , Life

“What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things.”
quid est sapienta? semper idem velle atque idem nolle.

Seneca the Younger

Here, Seneca uses the same observation that Sallust made regarding friendship (in his historical account of the Catilinarian conspiracy, Bellum Catilinae[XX.4]) to define wisdom.
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XX: On practicing what you preach, Line 5

Wisdom

“And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle.”
Atqui vivere, Lucili, militare est.

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVI

Life

“The shortest way to wealth is through the contempt of wealth.”
Brevissima ad divitias per contemptum divitiarum via est.

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXII

Way , Wealth

“For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.”
Aliquando enim et vivere fortiter facere est

Seneca the Younger

Seneca, Ad Lucilium epistulae morales, transl. Richard M. Grummere, 1920 ed., Epistle LXXVIII, pp. 181-182
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind

“If one doesn't know his mistakes, he won't want to correct them.”
Nam qui peccare se nescit, corrigi non vult.

Seneca the Younger

Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXVIII: On travel as a cure for discontent, Line 9

“Just as an enemy is more dangerous to a retreating army, so every trouble that fortune brings attacks us all the harder if we yield and turn our backs.”
Quemadmodum perniciosior est hostis fugientibus, sic omne fortuitum incommodum magis instat cedenti et averso.

Seneca the Younger

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXVIII: On liberal and vocational studies