Quotes from Lucius Annaeus Seneca

The intellect must not be kept at consistent tension, but diverted by pastimes.... The mind must have relaxation, and will rise stronger and keener after recreation.

Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both this is an observation of the Middle Way.

A great step toward independence is a good humored stomach.

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party there is no battle unless there be two.

A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer.

All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.

An action will not be right unless the will be right for from thence is the action derived. Again, the will will not be right unless the disposition of the mind be right for from thence comes the will.

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

Arms observe no bounds; nor can the wrath of the sword, once drawn, be easily checked or stayed; war delights in blood.

As is a tale, so is life not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave.

Excusatio Non Petita, Acusatio Manifesta.

Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.

He that visits the sick in hopes of a legacy, but is never so friendly in all other cases, I look upon him as being no better than a raven that watches a weak sheep only to peck out its eyes.

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.

He who comes to a conclusion when the other side is unheard, may have been just in his conclusion, but yet has not been just in his conduct.

He who has injured thee was stronger or weaker than thee. If weaker, spare him if stronger, spare thyself.

Let us say what we feel, and feel what we say let speech harmonize with life.

Liesure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.

Life is a gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.

Malice drinks one half of its own poison.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.