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 AD. 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 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.
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Nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party: there is no battle unless there be two.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
The body is not a permanent dwelling, but a sort of inn (with a brief sojourn at that) which is to be left behind when one perceives that one is a burden to the host.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
The soul has this proof of its divinity: that divine things delight in it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude.—If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it.—But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself?—Miserable is he who slights that witness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Conscience
Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Happiness, The Present, Worry, Satisfaction
The physician cannot prescribe by letter the proper time for eating or bathing; he must feel the pulse.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Thought, Memory, God
Time heals what reason cannot.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Time
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Difficulties, Difficulty
Knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Courage, Wisdom, Sin, Knowledge, Beginning
He who seeks wisdom is a wise man; he who thinks he has found it is mad.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Old age is a disease which we cannot cure.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Happiness, Positive Attitudes, Optimism
Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Crime which is prosperous and lucky is called virtue.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Fear, Anxiety
While we are postponing, life speeds by.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Life
Everything may happen.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Where fear is, happiness is not.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Fear, Courage
Remember that pain has this most excellent quality: if prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Punishment
There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Poverty
Death is a punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Death, Dying
People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his kindness they still remain in his debt.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
It is part of the cure to wish to be cured.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Health, Medicine
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Opportunity, Luck, Preparation, One liners
One should count each day a separate life.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Happiness, Character, Wisdom
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Fear, Anxiety, Risk, Danger
Live among men as if God beheld you; speak to God as if men were listening.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: God
The thing that matters is not what you bear, but how you bear it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Topics: Greatness, Greatness & Great Things
We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the Gods.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
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