36 Quotes About Seneca

Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. And if wisdom were given me under the express condition that it must be kept hidden and not uttered, I should refuse it.No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.

distringit librorum multitudo (the abundance of books is distraction)

When you pursue wisdom, you will soon realize how much you don’t know. Your knowledge will be incomplete, but continually developing through your curiosity. Arrogance blocks new information from coming in. When you’re conceited, you’ll resist change, and struggle to preserve your fixed image. Don’t fall into smug idleness, used to comfort. Challenge what you think you know, not caring if other people see you as a fool. Progress daily in your own uncertainty.

The willing are led by fate, the reluctant are dragged.

If you apply yourself to study you will avoid all boredom with life, you will not long for night because you are sick of daylight, you will be neither a burden to yourself nor useless to others, you will attract many to become your friends and the finest people will flock about you.

So the life of a philosopher extends widely: he is not confined by the same boundary as are others. He alone is free from the laws that limit the human race, and all ages serve him as though he were a god.

En Skoemager maa ogsaa være vel dreven udi Philosophia morali, og ingen Læsning er ham meere fornøden end Senecæ Tractat de Ira [Seneca's skrift Om vreden], som viser, hvorledes man maa bevæbne sig med Taalmodighed: Thi af alle Haandverks-Mænd er ingen, hvis Arbejde bliver meere mynstret og igiennemheglet end en Skoemagers.

Huius (sapientis) opus unum est de divinis humanisque verum invenire; ab hac numquam recedit religio, pietas, iustitia ...

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