Seneca the Younger - Man Quotes

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It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Seneca the Younger
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Seneca the Younger
Man's highest good is attained if he has fulfilled the good for which nature designed him at birth. And what is it which this reason demands of him? The easiest thing in the world — to live in accordance with his nature. But this has turned into a hard task by the general madness of mankind.

Seneca the Younger
How many other bodies besides [these comets] move in secret, never dawning upon human eyes? Nor is it for man that God has made all things.

Seneca the Younger
It is medicine, not scenery, for which a sick man must go a-searching.

Seneca the Younger
No man is so utterly dull and obtuse, with head so bent on Earth, as never to lift himself up and rise with all his soul to the contemplation of the starry heavens, especially when some fresh wonder shows a beacon-light in the sky.

Seneca the Younger
Some day there will arise a man who will demonstrate in what region of the heavens comets take their way.

Seneca the Younger
Behold a thing worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with adversity.

Seneca the Younger
No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.

Seneca the Younger
Death is neither a good nor a bad thing, for that alone which is something can be a good or a bad thing: but that which is nothing, and reduces all things to nothing, does not hand us over to either fortune, because good and bad require some material to work upon. Fortune cannot take ahold of that which Nature has let go, nor can a man be unhappy if he is nothing.

Seneca the Younger
Anyone can stop a man's life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.

Seneca the Younger
That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.

Seneca the Younger
For no man is free who is a slave to his body.

Seneca the Younger
I do not trust my eyes to tell me what a man is: I have a better and more trustworthy light by which I can distinguish what is true from what is false: let the mind find out what is good for the mind.

Seneca the Younger
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?

Seneca the Younger
The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.

Seneca the Younger
Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.

Seneca the Younger
The much occupied man has no time for wantonness, and it is an obvious commonplace that the evils of leisure can be shaken off by hard work.

Seneca the Younger
A small debt makes a man your debtor; a large one, an enemy.

Seneca the Younger
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Seneca the Younger
A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy.

Seneca the Younger
You can tell the character of every man when you see how he gives and receives praise.

Seneca the Younger
Deeds that would be punished by loss of life when committed in secret, are praised by us because uniformed generals have carried them out. Man, naturally the gentlest class of being, is not ashamed to revel in the blood of others, to wage war, and to entrust the waging of war to his sons, when even dumb beasts and wild beasts keep the peace with one another. Against this overmastering and widespread madness philosophy has become a matter of greater effort, and has taken on strength in proportion to the strength which is gained by the opposition forces.

Seneca the Younger
No man expects such exact fidelity as a traitor.

Seneca the Younger
Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives and dies. It is just as possible for you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave.

Seneca the Younger
Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.

Seneca the Younger