475 Quotes by Seneca

Let Nature make whatever use she pleases of matter, which is her own: lets us be cheerful and brave in the face of all, and consider that nothing of our own perishes. What is the duty of a good man? To offer himself to fate.

For those who follow nature everything is easy and straightforward, whereas for those who fight against her life is just like rowing against the stream.

All vices are at odds with nature.

why should I demand from fortune that she should give me this and that rather than demand from myself that I should not ask for them? why should I ask for them, after all? am I to pile them up in total forgetfulness of the frailty of human existence?

[T]he man who lives extravagantly wants his manner of living to be on everybody's lips as long as he is alive. He thinks he is wasting his time if he is not being talked about.

If you admit to having derived great pleasures, your duty is not to complain about what has been taken away but to be thankful for what you have been given.

So the spirit must be trained to a realization and an acceptance of its lot. It must come tosee that there is nothing fortune will shrink from[.] There's no ground for resentment in all this. We've entered into a world in which these are the terms life is lived on – if you're satisfied with that, submit to them, if you're not, get out, whatever way you please.

What good does it do you to go overseas, to move from city to city? If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.

[E]verything which went beyond our actual needs was just so much unnecessary weight, a burden to the man who had to carry it.