Lucius Annaeus Seneca idézet

oldal 6

„Semmilyen szél nem kedvez annak, aki nem tudja, melyik kikötőbe tart.”
errant consilia nostra, quia non habent quo derigantur; ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est.

„Nem az szegény, akinek csak kevese van, hanem aki többre vágyik.”
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.

„A szerencse az, amikor a felkészülés találkozik a lehetőséggel.”

„A háborúnál csak a háborútól való félelem rosszabb.”
peior est bello timor ipse belli.

„Soha senki sem volt bölcs véletlenül.”

„Senki sem képes uralkodni, ha nem képes elviselni, hogy uralva legyen.”
nemo autem regere potest nisi qui et regi.

„Az igazi barátság egyik legszebb tulajdonsága a megértés.”

„Az elme nehezen felejti azt, amit már régen megtanult.”

„Kezdjetek el végre élni, és minden egyes napot külön életnek számítsatok.”

„A barátság mindig előnyös; a szerelem néha árt.”

„Azokra a dolgokra, amelyeket nehéz volt elviselni, édes emlékezni.”

„A legerősebb az, aki saját magát tartja hatalmában.”

„Nincs nagy zsenialitás egy kis őrület nélkül.”

„A hódítás feltételei mindig könnyűek. Csak egy darabig kell fáradoznunk, egy darabig tűrnünk, mindig hinnünk kell, és soha nem szabad visszafordulnunk.”

„Ha az ember nem tudja, hogy melyik kikötőbe hajózik, semmilyen szél sem kedvező.”

“Great also are the souls of the defenders—men who know that, as long as the path to death lies open, the blockade is not complete, men who breathe their last in the arms of liberty.”

“But the wise man is fortified against all inroads; he is alert; he will not retreat before the attack of poverty, or of sorrow, or of disgrace, or of pain. He will walk undaunted both against them and among them.”

“For what else are you busied with except improving yourself every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself?”

“Would you really know what philosophy offers to humanity? Philosophy offers counsel.”

“I propose to value them according to their character, and not according to their duties. Each man acquires his character for himself, but accident assigns his duties.”

“At any rate, if you wish to sift doubtful meanings of this kind, teach us that the happy man is not he whom the crowd deems happy, namely, he into whose coffers mighty sums have flowed, but he whose possessions are all in his soul, who is upright and exalted, who spurns inconstancy, who sees no man with whom he wishes to change places, who rates men only at their value as men, who takes Nature for his teacher, conforming to her laws and living as she commands, whom no violence can deprive of his possessions, who turns evil into good, is unerring in judgment, unshaken, unafraid, who may be moved by force but never moved to distraction, whom Fortune when she hurls at him with all her might the deadliest missile in her armoury, may graze, though rarely, but never wound.”

“He that owns himself has lost nothing. But how few men are blessed with ownership of self!”

“Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily; I can show you many objects the quest and acquisition of which have wrested freedom from our hands.”

“It is generally agreed that no activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied – not rhetoric or liberal studies – since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply, but rejects everything which is, so to speak, crammed into it.”

“Non faciunt meliorem equum aurei freni.”

“You must die erect and unyielding.”

“You must lay aside the burdens of the mind; until you do this, no place will satisfy you.”

“You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.”

“I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith.”

“It was a great deed to conquer Carthage, but a greater deed to conquer death.”

“Mucius put his hand into the fire. It is painful to be burned; but how much more painful to inflict such suffering upon oneself!”

“Armies have endured all manner of want, have lived on roots, and have resisted hunger by means of food too revolting to mention. All this they have suffered to gain a kingdom, and—what is more marvellous—to gain a kingdom that will be another’s. Will any man hesitate to endure poverty, in order that he may free his mind from madness?”

“There is no reason why poverty should call us away from philosophy—no, nor even actual want. For when hastening after wisdom, we must endure even hunger. Men have endured hunger when their towns were besieged, and what other reward for their endurance did they obtain than that they did not fall under the conqueror’s power? How much greater is the promise of the prize of everlasting liberty, and the assurance that we need fear neither God nor man! Even though we starve, we must reach that goal.”

“But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you.”

“What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.”

“I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies, and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavour to become a better man.”

“No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him.”

“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”

“This spirit thrusts itself forward, confident of commendation and esteem. It is superior to all, monarch of all it surveys; hence it should be subservient to nothing, finding no task too heavy, and nothing strong enough to weigh down the shoulders of a man.”

“Then it is that the height of unhappiness is reached, when men are not only attracted, but even pleased, by shameful things, and when there is no longer any room for a cure, now that those things which once were vices have become habits.”

“Whoever complains about the death of anyone, is complaining that he was a man. Everyone is bound by the same terms: he who is privileged to be born, is destined to die.”

“The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.”

“No man was ever wise by chance.”

“Begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life.”