Seneca-Letters-from-a-Stoic

Seneca

• Nothing is better proof of a well ordered mind thatn a mans ability to stop where he is and pass some time in his own company
• You should be careful about reading too widely. You should be extending your stay among writers whose genius is unquestionable, To be everywhere is to be nowhere
• Nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent changes of treatment
• A multitude of books only gets in ones way.
• Always read well-tried authors, if you want a change go back to ones you have read before
• It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more. What is a proper limit to ones wealth? 1) having what is essential 2) having what is enough.
• Think for a long time whether or not you should admit a given person to your friendship. But when you have decided to do so, welcome him heart and soul, and speak as unreservedly with him as you would with yourself. Regard him as loyal, and you will make him loyal. Trusting everyone is as much a fault as trusting no one.
• Crave improvement, not attention! Advice
• Be better, not diametrically opposed to popular views. Otherwise we shall repel and alienate the very people whose reform we desire. Dont make them reluctant to imitate us in anything for fear they may have to imitate us in everything.
• Limiting one's desires actuallly helps to cure one of frear. "Cease to hope and you will cease to fear". Both fear and hope are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present.
• Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. Men learn as they teach.
• What difference does it make, after all, what your position in life is if you dislike it yourself ?
• Set your affections on some good man and keep him constantly before your eyes; live as if he were watching you and do everything as if he saw what we were doing. There is a need to adopt someone as a standard against which you can measure your character.
• Cherish old age and enjoy it. It is full of pleasures if you know how to use it.
• How pleasant it is to ask for nothing, to be complete and independent of fortune. Continually remind yourself of the many things you have achieved. When you look at all the people out in front of you, think of all those behind you.
• The outcome of violent anger is mental raving. Anger is to be avoided not for the sake of moderation but for the sake of sanity.
• A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first steop to salvation.
• Philosophy's power to blunt all the blows of circumstance is beyond belief.
• Life is never incomplete if it is an honorable one. If you leave life right, it is whole.
• What is the use of overcoming opponent after opponent if you are easily overcome by your own temper.
• The growth of things is slow, thier destruction fast.
• 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.
• Dont run away from danger instead of taking steps to avert them. We are far more exposed to them once our backs are turned.
• Any man can do you injury. To be feared is to fear.
• Until we go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are.