Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes (752 quotes)

“Greed's worst point is its ingratitude.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“A good conscience fears no witnesses, 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!”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Source/Notes:
Variation: "And so it matters not what is done or what is given [...] but rather the intention of the giver or agent". As quoted in: On Benefits by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, translated by Miriam Griffin, Brad Inwood, University of Chicago Press, 2011, p. 25

“All cruelty springs from weakness.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Source/Notes:
De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life): cap. 3, line 4

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Source/Notes:
Epistolae, 71, 3

“Modesty forbids what the law does not.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Source/Notes:
As quoted in: Great thoughts from Latin authors (1884), Craufurd Tait Ramage, J. B. Alden, 1884, p. 570

“Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Source/Notes:
In Latin: "Errant consilia nostra, quia non habent quo derigantur; ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est." - Letter LXXI: On the supreme good, line 3 - Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)

“Men love their country, not because it is great, but because it is their own.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“It takes the whole life to learn how to live, and - what will perhaps amaze you more - it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.”
―Lucius Annaeus Seneca