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Sénèque , né à Corduba, dans le sud de l'Espagne, entre l'an 4 av. J.-C. et l'an 1 apr. J.-C., mort le 12 avril 65 apr. J.-C., est un philosophe de l'école stoïcienne, un dramaturge et un homme d'État romain du Ier siècle. Il est parfois nommé Sénèque le Philosophe, Sénèque le Tragique ou Sénèque le Jeune pour le distinguer de son père, Sénèque l'Ancien.

Conseiller à la cour impériale sous Caligula, exilé à l'avènement de Claude puis rappelé comme précepteur de Néron, Sénèque joue un rôle important de conseiller auprès de ce dernier avant d'être discrédité et acculé au suicide. Ses traités philosophiques comme De la colère, De la vie heureuse ou De la brièveté de la vie, et surtout ses Lettres à Lucilius exposent ses conceptions philosophiques stoïciennes. Pour lui :



« Le souverain bien, c'est une âme qui méprise les événements extérieurs et se réjouit par la vertu. »



Ses tragédies constituent l'un des meilleurs exemples du théâtre tragique latin avec des œuvres qui nourriront le théâtre classique français du XVIIe siècle comme Médée, Œdipe ou Phèdre. Wikipedia  

✵ 4 av. J.-C. – 12. avril 65 ap. J.-C.   •   Autres noms Seneca mladší, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca der Jüngere), Lucius Annaues Seneca, Луций Анней Сенека
Sénèque photo
Sénèque: 241   citations 2   J'aime

Sénèque citations célèbres

“C'est d'âme qu'il faut changer, et non de climat.”
Animum debes mutare, non cœlum.

Sénèque livre Lettres à Lucilius

la
Lettres à Lucilius (Epistulae morales ad Lucilium)

“Nul ne sait répondre aux bienfaits que le sage : l’insensé aussi y répondra d’une manière telle quelle, selon sa portée; le savoir lui manquera plutôt que la volonté. La volonté ne s’apprend point.”
Nemo referre gratiam scit nisi sapiens : stultus quoque, utcumque scit et quemadmodum potest, referat; scientia illi potius, quam voluntas desit. Velle non discitur.

Sénèque livre Lettres à Lucilius

Nemo referre gratiam scit nisi sapiens : stultus quoque, utcumque scit et quemadmodum potest, referat ; scientia illi potius, quam voluntas desit. Velle non discitur.
la
Lettres à Lucilius (Epistulae morales ad Lucilium)

“La mort n'est ni un bien ni un mal : en effet, il faut être quelque chose pour pouvoir être bon ou mauvais; mais ce qui en soi n'est rien et ramène tout au néant, ne nous abandonne à aucune Fortune : en effet, les maux et les biens s'exercent sur la matière. La Fortune n'a pas prise sur ce que la Nature a laissé échapper et celui qui n'est plus ne peut-être malheureux.”

Sénèque Consolation à Marcia

Consolation à Marcia (Ad Marciam de consolatione)

“La mauvaise Fortune ne brise que celui que la bonne Fortune a aveuglé.”

Sénèque

Consolation à ma mère Helva (Ad Helviam matrem de consolatione)

“Si un grand homme tombe, c'est un grand homme qui est à terre et je dirai qu'on ne le méprise pas plus qu'on ne piétine les ruines d'un temple consacré que les personnes pieuses révèrent tout autant que si les murs étaient encore debout.”

Sénèque

Consolation à ma mère Helva (Ad Helviam matrem de consolatione)

Sénèque Citations

“[…] un malheur n'a jamais que l'importance que nous lui accordons.”

Sénèque Consolation à Marcia

Consolation à Marcia (Ad Marciam de consolatione)

“Personne ne meurt trop tôt puisque personne n'était destiné à vivre plus longtemps qu'il n'a vécu.”

Sénèque Consolation à Marcia

Consolation à Marcia (Ad Marciam de consolatione)

personnes

“Là où il n'y a plus d'amélioration possible, le déclin est proche.”

Sénèque Consolation à Marcia

Consolation à Marcia (Ad Marciam de consolatione)

“Quand tu auras désappris à espérer, je t'apprendrai à vouloir.”

Sénèque

“Si on nous donnait le choix entre ne pas être longtemps heureux et ne jamais l'être, mieux vaudrait un bonheur prêt à s'envoler que pas de bonheur du tout.”

Sénèque Consolation à Marcia

Consolation à Marcia (Ad Marciam de consolatione)

bonheur

“On n'est jamais méprisé par autrui que si on commence par se mépriser soi-même.”

Sénèque

Consolation à ma mère Helva (Ad Helviam matrem de consolatione)

“La véritable joie est une chose sérieuse.”

Sénèque livre Lettres à Lucilius

Lettres à Lucilius (Epistulae morales ad Lucilium)

Joie

“Ce serait une sorte de consolation pour notre fragilité comme pour celle des choses qui nous touchent, si tout était aussi lent à périr qu’à croître; mais le progrès veut du temps pour se développer : la chute vient au pas de course.”

Sénèque
sort , temps , sortie

“La croissance est lente, mais la chute est rapide.”

Sénèque

Sénèque: Citations en anglais

“He maintained this attitude up to the very end, and no man ever saw Socrates too much elated or too much depressed. Amid all the disturbance of Fortune, he was undisturbed.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind

“This spirit thrusts itself forward, confident of commendation and esteem.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind

“Or, if you enjoy living with Greeks also, spend your time with Socrates and with Zeno: the former will show you how to die if it be necessary; the latter how to die before it is necessary. Live with Chrysippus, with Posidonius: they will make you acquainted with things earthly and things heavenly; they will bid you work hard over something more than neat turns of language and phrases mouthed forth for the entertainment of listeners; they will bid you be stout of heart and rise superior to threats. The only harbour safe from the seething storms of this life is scorn of the future, a firm stand, a readiness to receive Fortune’s missiles full in the breast, neither skulking nor turning the back.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind

“New friends, however, will not be the same.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

No, nor will you yourself remain the same; you change with every day and every hour.
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind

“What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to another? If you would escape your troubles, you need not another place but another personality. Perhaps you have reached Athens, or perhaps Rhodes; choose any state you fancy, how does it matter what its character may be? You will be bringing to it your own.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind

“Therefore, my dear Lucilius, begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CI: On the Futility of Planning Ahead

“Accept in an unruffled spirit that which is inevitable.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVIX: On Consolation to the Bereaved

“Of all these experiences that seem so frightful, none is insuperable. Separate trials have been over- come by many: fire by Mucius, crucifixion by Regulus, poison by Socrates, exile by Rutilius, and a sword-inflicted death by Cato; therefore, let us also overcome something.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVIII: On the Fickleness of Fortune

“For this reason those who are tossed about at sea, who proceed uphill and downhill over toilsome crags and heights, who go on campaigns that bring the greatest danger, are heroes and front-rank fighters; but persons who live in rotten luxury and ease while others toil, are mere turtle-doves safe only because men despise them.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

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

“That man, I declare, is happy whom nothing makes less strong than he is; he keeps to the heights, leaning upon none but himself; for one who sustains himself by any prop may fall.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCII: On the Happy Life

“A thatched roof once covered free men; under marble and gold dwells slavery.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XC: On the Part Played by Philosophy in the Progress of Man

“So the wise man will develop virtue, if he may, in the midst of wealth, or, if not, in poverty; if possible, in his own country—if not, in exile; if possible, as a commander—if not, as a common soldier; if possible, in sound health—if not, enfeebled. Whatever fortune he finds, he will accomplish therefrom something noteworthy.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXV: On Some Vain Syllogisms

“Thus no fortune, no external circumstance, can shut off the wise man from action. For the very thing which engages his attention prevents him from attending to other things. He is ready for either outcome: if it brings goods, he controls them; if evils, he conquers them.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXV: On Some Vain Syllogisms

“But he has no fear; unconquered he looks down from a lofty height upon his sufferings.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXV: On Some Vain Syllogisms

“Meanwhile, hold fast to this thought, and grip it close: yield not to adversity; trust not to prosperity; keep before your eyes the full scope of Fortune’s power, as if she would surely do whatever is in her power to do.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind

“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all—the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind

“No man can suffer both severely and for a long time; Nature, who loves us most tenderly, has so constituted us as to make pain either endurable or short.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind

“You will die, not because you are ill, but because you are alive; even when you have been cured, thesame end awaits you; when you have recovered, it will be not death, but ill health, that you have escaped.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVIII: On the Healing Power of the Mind

“What else is there which you would regret to have taken from you? Friends? But who can be a friend to you? Country? What? Do you think enough of your country to be late to dinner? The light of the sun? You would extinguish it, if you could; for what have you ever done that was fit to be seen in the light?”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVII: On Taking One’s Own Life

“Would you not think him an utter fool who wept because he was not alive a thousand years ago? And is he not just as much of a fool who weeps because he will not be alive a thousand years from now? It is all the same; you will not be, and you were not. Neither of these periods of time belongs to you.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXVII: On Taking One’s Own Life

“But no wall can be erected against Fortune which she cannot take by storm; let us strengthen our inner defences. If the inner part be safe, man can be attacked, but never captured.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXIV: On Virtue as a Refuge From Worldly Distractions

“Do you ask me whom I have conquered? Neither the Persians, nor the far-off Medes, nor any warlike race that lies beyond the Dahae; not these, but greed, ambition, and the fear of death that has conquered the conquerors of the world.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXI: On the supreme good

“These actions are not essentially difficult; it is we ourselves that are soft and flabby.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXI: On the supreme good

“Why should I not regard this as desirable—not because the fire, burns me, but because it does not overcome me?”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVII: On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering

“I should prefer that Fortune keep me in her camp rather than in the lap of luxury. If I am tortured, but bear it bravely, all is well; if I die, but die bravely, it is also well.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVII: On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering

“Clothe yourself with a hero’s courage, and withdraw for a little space from the opinions of the common man. Form a proper conception of the image of virtue, a thing of exceeding beauty and grandeur; this image is not to be worshipped by us with incense or garlands, but with sweat and blood.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVII: On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering

“Now a life of honour includes various kinds of conduct; it may include the chest in which Regulus was confined, or the wound of Cato which was torn open by Cato’s own hand, or the exile of Rutilius, or the cup of poison which removed Socrates from gaol to heaven.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVII: On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering

“I should prefer to be free from torture; but if the time comes when it must be endured, I shall desire that I may conduct myself therein with bravery, honour, and courage. Of course I prefer that war should not occur; but if war does occur, I shall desire that I may nobly endure the wounds, the starvation, and all that the exigency of war brings. Nor am I so mad as to crave illness; but if I must suffer illness, I shall desire that I may do nothing which shows lack of restraint, and nothing that is unmanly. The conclusion is, not that hardships are desirable, but that virtue is desirable, which enables us patiently to endure hardships.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVII: On Ill-Health and Endurance of Suffering

“I cannot help believing that Mucius was all the more lucky because he manipulated the flames as calmly as if he were holding out his hand to the manipulator. He had wiped out all his previous mistakes; he finished the war unarmed and maimed; and with that stump of a hand he conquered two kings.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVI: On Various Aspects of Virtue

“There stood Mucius, despising the enemy and despising the fire, and watched his hand as it dripped blood over the fire on his enemy’s altar, until Porsenna, envying the fame of the hero whose punishment he was advocating, ordered the fire to be removed against the will of the victim.”

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Seneca the Younger livre Lettres à Lucilius

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVI: On Various Aspects of Virtue

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