Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (Roman Stoic Philosopher)

Lūcius Annaeus Seneca, called Seneca the Younger (c.4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian. As Rome’s foremost intellectual figure in the mid-1st century CE, and as “prime minister,” Seneca was the virtual ruler of the Roman Empire 54–62 CE, during the initial chapter of the Emperor Nero’s reign.

Born to a provincial equestrian family in Corduba, now Cordoba, Spain, Seneca was the son of rhetorician Marcus Annaeus Seneca, called Seneca the Elder.

Seneca the Younger began a career in politics and law in Rome in 31 CE. However, he was banished to Corsica (41–49 CE) by Emperor Claudius on an accusation of adultery with Claudius’s niece Julia Livilla, and there Seneca wrote the three treatises, Consolation.

Recalled to Rome in 49 CE through the influence of Empress Agrippina the Younger, Seneca became the tutor to her son, the future Emperor Nero. Seneca enjoyed substantial political influence for a while and was made consul by Nero in 57 CE, but he later withdrew from public life and devoted himself to writing and philosophy. In 65 CE, Seneca was implicated in the conspiracy of Pisa to kill Nero and ordered to commit suicide.

Seneca’s writings include Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (64 CE,) a collection of 124 letters dealing with moral issues written to Lucilius Junior, and Apocolocyntosis (divi) Claudii (64 CE; ‘The Pumpkinification of the Divine Claudius,’) a scathing satire.

Seneca’s extant works comprise ten ethical treatises: On Providence (64 CE,) On the Constancy of the Wise Man (55 CE,) On Anger (in three books, 41 CE,) To Marcia, on Consolation (40 CE,) On the Happy Life (58 CE,) On Leisure (62 CE,) On Tranquility of Mind (63 CE,) On the Brevity of Life (49 CE,) To Polybius, on Consolation (44 CE,) and To Helvia, on Consolation (42 CE.)

Seneca’s rhetorical type of tragedy had extensive influence in the Italian and French Renaissance. In Elizabethan England, adaptations of Seneca’s Tenne Tragedies and his terse and epigrammatic literary style inspired the language and psychology of Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Seasons

Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

To be everywhere is to be nowhere.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Action, Focus

The worse a person is the less he feels it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

We are sure to get the better of fortune if we do but grapple with her.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Fortune

What were once vices are the fashion of the day.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Vice, Virtue

The great soul surrenders itself to fate.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Acceptance

There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Anxiety, Worry

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Speakers

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Anger, Hate, Hatred

Religion worships God, while superstition profanes that worship.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Superstition

Life is neither a good nor an evil, but simply the scene of good and evil.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Life

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Beginnings

Rehearse death. To say this is to tell a person to rehearse his freedom. A person who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate, beyond the reach of, all political powers.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Freedom, Power, Death, Wisdom

Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Slavery

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Endurance, Bravery, Courage, Happiness

Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Success, Success & Failure

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Criminals, Crime

A dwarf is small, even if he stands on a mountain; a colossus keeps his height, even if he stands in a well.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Ability

He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Blessings, Appreciation, Gratitude

There’s some end at last for the man who follows a path; mere rambling is interminable.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Aspirations, Goals

If I give way to pleasure, I must also yield to grief, to poverty, to labor, to ambition, to anger until I am torn to pieces by my misfortunes and my lust.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Pleasure

All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Cruelty

Take away from mankind their vanity and their ambition, and there would be but few claiming to be heroes or patriots.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Vanity

See what daily exercise does for one.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Energy

The soul has this proof of its divinity: that divine things delight in it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Adversity, Soldiers, Difficulties

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Doing Your Best, Being True to Yourself, Life

Nothing is ours except time.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Value of a Day, Time Management

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Imitation

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