Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes (752 quotes)
![]() | “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 |
![]() | “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) |
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Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Nationality: Roman
Occupation: Statesman
Bio: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. While he was later forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, he may have been innocent.
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