Seneca the Younger Quotes

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Good moral character is the first essential in a man.

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.

Let us not disdain glory too much; nothing is finer, except virtue. The height of happiness would be to unite both in this life.

Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others. It is not obedience to authority, and while it is often consistent with and reinforced by religious belief, it is not piety.

By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else.

The generous person is always just, and the just who is always generous may, unannounced, approach the throne of heaven.

It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.

Marcus Aurelius appoints personal character and conscience the ultimate refuge of happiness-seekers: the only place where dreams of happiness, doomed to die childless and intestate anywhere else, are not bound to be frustrated.

The paths of virtue, though seldom those of worldly greatness, are always those of pleasantness and peace.

A good conscience and a good confidence go together.

The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.

The world will never be in any manner of order or tranquility until men are firmly convinced that conscience, honor and credit are all in one interest

A good man will avoid the spot of any sin. The very aspersion is grievous, which makes him choose his way in his life, as he would in his journey.

Virtue and integrity are necessary for genuine happiness. Guard your integrity with care.

So far as regards their moral character, the Finns have as little cause for reproach as any other people.

The just man walks in his integrity

The only word for goodness is goodness, and it is not enough.

For he who is honest is noble, Whatever his fortunes or birth.

True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.

Indeed, we may go further and assert that anyone who does not delight in fine actions is not even a good man.

Without Goodness one cannot enjoy enduring happiness

There is need of a sound body, and even more need of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character-the sum of those qualities which we mean when we speak of a man's force and courage, of his good faith and sense of honor.

You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It will alone gentilize, if unmixed with cant; and I know nothing else that will, alone. Certainly not the army, which is thought to be the grand embellisher of manners.

I will live and die by this testimony: that I loved a good conscience; that I never invaded another man's liberty; and that I preserved my own.