There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. …some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.
Author: Seneca | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Men trust their eyes rather than their ears; the road by precept is long and tedious, by example short and effectual.
Author: Seneca | Subject: Education | Scholarship
It is better to conquer our grief than to deceive it. For if it has withdrawn, being merely beguiled by pleasures and preoccupations, it starts up again and from its very respite gains force to savage us. But the grief that has been conquered by reason is calmed forever. I am not therefore going to prescribe for you those remedies which I know many people … [ Read more ]
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Life & Society, Pain & Suffering
No man has been shattered by the blows of Fortune unless he was first deceived by her favors. Those who loved her gifts as if they were their own forever, who wanted to be admired on account of them, are laid low and grieve when the false and transient pleasures desert their vain and childish minds, ignorant of every stable pleasure. But the man who … [ Read more ]
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
Fortune … falls heavily on those to whom she is unexpected; the man who is always expecting her easily withstands her. For an enemy’s arrival too scatters those whom it catches off guard; but those who have prepared in advance for the coming conflict, being properly drawn up and equipped, easily withstand the first onslaught, which is the most violent. Never have I trusted Fortune, … [ Read more ]
Author: Seneca | Subject: Life & Society
We are all chained to fortune: the chain of one is made of gold, and wide, while that of another is short and rusty. But what difference does it make? The same prison surrounds all of us, and even those who have bound others are bound themselves; unless perchance you think that a chain on the left side is lighter. Honors bind one man, wealth … [ Read more ]
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Insight, Life & Society
The most important knowledge is that which guides the way you lead your life.
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge
We should try by all means to be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a sense in which justice, that is commonly supposed to concern other persons, is not; gratitude returns in large measure unto itself. There is not a man who, when he has benefited his neighbor, has not benefited himself, — I do not mean for … [ Read more ]
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Gratitude, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
A man is an ingrate if he repays a favor without interest.
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Concepts, Gratitude, Personal Improvement
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn as in doing it.
Author: Seneca | Subjects: Concepts, Good & Evil, Gratitude, Personal Improvement