Life is like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Timendi causa est nescire – Ignorance is the cause of fear.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Non est ad astra mollis e terris via” – “There is no easy way from the earth to the stars
Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We’ve been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
No man is crushed by misfortune unless he has first been deceived by prosperity
To win true freeedom you must be a slave to philosophy.
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for crisis.
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
Here is your great soul—the man who has given himself over to Fate; on the other hand, that man is a weakling and a degenerate who struggles and maligns the order of the universe and would rather reform the gods than reform himself.
we deceive ourselves in thinking that death only follows life whereas it both goes before and will follow after it for where is the difference in not beginning or ceasing to exist the effect of both is not to be
Believe me if you consult philosophy she will persuade you not to lit so long at your counting desk
I have learned to be a friend to myself Great improvement this indeed Such a one can never be said to be alone for know that he who is a friend to himself is a friend to all mankind
On Epicurus; He says: “Contended poverty is an honourable estate.” Indeed, if it is contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Amintirea plăcerilor este mai de durată și mai de încredere decât prezența lor.
Reflect that nothing merits admiration except thespirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything.
errare humanum est, sed perseverare diabolicum: ‘to err is human, but to persist (in the mistake) is diabolical.
Huius (sapientis) opus unum est de divinis humanisque verum invenire; ab hac numquam recedit religio, pietas, iustitia …
¿Preguntas cúal es el fundamento de la sabiduría? No gozarte en cosas vanas.
The part of life we really live is small.’ For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.
It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.
Leisure without books is death, and burial of a man alive.
distringit librorum multitudo (the abundance of books is distraction)
f you wish to put off all worry, assume that what you fear may happen is certainly going to happen.
There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with
Because thou writest me often, I thank thee … Never do I receive a letter from thee, but immediately we are together.
It’s easier to get philosophers to agree than clocks.
A woman is not beautiful when her ankle or arm wins compliments, but when her total appearance diverts admiration from the individual parts of her body.
The final hour when we cease to exist does not itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process. We reach death at that moment, but we have been a long time on the way.
…because it is natural to touch more often the parts that hurt.
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.”— Seneca
It takes the whole of life to learn how to live, and–what will perhaps make you wonder more–it takes the whole of life to learn how to die.
The willing, Destiny guides them. The unwilling, Destiny drags them.
Life is divided into three parts: what was, what is and what shall be. Of these three periods, the present is short, the future is doubtful and the past alone is certain.
Words need to be sown like seeds. No matter how tiny a seed may be, when in lands in the right sort of ground it unfolds its strength and from being minute expands and grows to a massive size.
It takes all of our life to learn how to live, and – something that may surprise you more – it takes just as long to learn how to die.
Love sometimes injures. Friendship always benefits, After friendship is formed you must trust, but before that you must judge.
Love sometimes injures. Friendship always benefits
Sorrowers tend to avoid what they are most fond of and try to give vent to their grief.
What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
All this hurrying from place to place won’t bring you any relief, for you’re traveling in the company of your own emotions, followed by your troubles all the way.
The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing.
Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool
It is the sign of a weak mind to be unable to bear wealth.
Oh, what darkness does great prosperity cast over our minds!
If you look on wealth as a thing to be valued your imaginary poverty will cause you torment.
The shortest route to wealth is the contempt of wealth.
For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them
If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.
The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
However much you possess there’s someone else who has more, and you’ll be fancying yourself to be short of things you need to exact extent to which you lag behind him.
Nature does not reveal her mysteries once and for all.
For Fate/ The willing leads, the unwilling drags along.
I know that these mental disturbances of mine are not dangerous and give no promise of a storm; to express what I complain of in apt metaphor, I am distressed, not by a tempest, but by sea-sickness.
Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate.
The road is long if one proceeds by way of precepts but short and effectual if by way of personal example.
Preserve a sense of proportion in your attitude to everything that pleases you, and make the most of them while they are at their best.
We are born under circumstances that would be favorable if we did not abandon them. It was nature’s intention that there should be no need of great equipment for a good life: every individual can make himself happy.
Reason shows us there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
You are unfortunate in my judgment, for you have never been unfortunate. You have passed through life with no antagonist to face you; no one will know what you were capable of, not even you yourself.
No matter how many men you kill, you can’t kill your successor.
Only a mind that is deeply stirred can utter something noble and beyond the power of others.
Nūllum magnum ingenium sine mixtūrā dēmentiae fuitNo great talent without an element of madness
We are members of one great body, planted by nature…. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole
A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it.
The liberal arts do not conduct the soul all the way to virtue, but merely set it going in that direction.
…it is more civilized to make fun of life than to bewail it.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.
Spurn everything that is added by way of decoration and display by unneccesary labour. Relect that nothing merits admiration except the spirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything.
…certain people have good, ordinary blood and others have an animated, lively sort of blood that comes to the face quickly.
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
Envy of other people shows how they are unhappy. Their continual attention to others behavior shows how they are boring.
Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.
Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it; … in thinking it slight, you will make it slight. Everything depends on opinion. It is according to opinion that we suffer. A man is as wretched as he has convinced himself that he is.
Night brings our troubles to the light rather than banishes them.
If you are surprised at the number of our maladies count our cooks.
When I think over what I have said I envy dumb people.
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
What a great blessing is a friend with a heart so trusty you may safely bury all your secrets in it.
Fate rules the affairs of mankind with no recognizable order.
A great step toward independence is a good-humoured stomach.
The foremost art of kings is the power to endure hatred.
Let wickedness escape as it may at the bar it never fails of doing justice upon itself for every guilty person is his own hangman.
A hungry people listens not to reason nor cares for justice nor is bent by any prayers.
It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.
It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.
He who decides a case without hearing the other side though he decide justly cannot be considered just.
As is a tale so is life: not how long it is but how good it is is what matters.
A good mind possesses a kingdom: a great fortune is a great slavery.
There is nothing so bitter that a patient mind cannot find some solace for it.
The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience the next for health of mind and then of body.
If you would wish another to keep your secret first keep it yourself.
Failure changes for the better success for the worse.
What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.
All outdoors may be bedlam, provided there is no disturbance within.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life.
Friendship always benefits love sometimes injures.
Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.
Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.