ca. AD 1–65
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
A Roman Stoic, tutor to an emperor and in the end his victim. Few have written about time more sharply, and few had less of it.
“It is not because it is hard that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that it is hard.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“It is not that we have little time, but that we waste much of it.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · On the Shortness of Life
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“You travel far and change countries, but you take yourself along everywhere.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · On the Shortness of Life
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“No wind is favourable to one who does not know where they are going.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“Begin at once to live, and count each day as a separate life.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“It is not the one who has little who is poor, but the one who craves more.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“One who is everywhere owns nothing. One who is at home in themselves lacks nothing.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“The one who is feared by many has many to fear.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“Fire tests gold, misfortune tests the strong.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · On Providence
“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Hercules Furens
“What fortune has not given, it cannot take away.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“He who is everywhere is nowhere.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
“Life is long enough if you know how to use it.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · On the Shortness of Life
“Time discovers the truth.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca · On Anger
Epistulae morales and De brevitate vitae, public domain. English rendering made for this site.
