Quotes from Seneca the Younger

He invites the commission of a crime who does not forbid it, when it is in his power to do so.

There is no power greater than true affection.

It is to the interest of the commonwealth of mankind that there should be someone who is unconquered, someone against whom fortune has no power.

Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration.

There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.

We are at best but stewards of what we falsely call our own; yet avarice is so insatiable that it is not in the power of liberality to content it.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence. -Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium

Persistent kindness conquers the ill-disposed.

He that does good to another does good also to himself.

Let the man, who would be grateful, think of repaying a kindness, even while receiving it.

People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his kindness they still remain in his debt.

Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.

It is impossible to imagine anything which better becomes a ruler than mercy.

My joy in learning is partly that it enables me to teach.

A lesson that is never learned can never be too often taught.

You should keep on learning as long as there is something you do not know.

Long is the road to learning by precepts, but short and successful by examples.

What's the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then.

Some cures are worse than the dangers they combat.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

You want to live-but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying-and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?

If you don't know, ask. You will be a fool for the moment, but a wise man for the rest of your life.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.