Seneca the Younger Quotes

Every guilty person is his own hangman.

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

We are not punished for our sins, but by them.

Every one shall die for his own iniquity.

Lucifer protests he was never to blame for inducing anyone to sin, and that he’s never had an interest in owning souls: 'They die, and they come here – having transgressed against what they believed to be right – and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retribution. I don’t make them come here… I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul? No, they belong to themselves. They just hate to have to face up to it.

Our faults are not seen, But past us; neither felt, but only in The punishment.

True justice is to pay one time for every mistake we make.

God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves.

We're not punished for our sins, lad. We're punished by them.

Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!

Then the old man's face hardened. "What about you young man?" he asked flatly. "Would you like to get what you deserve?" Jones let that question hang in the air for a moment, then sighed, shook his head, and said "Me? I surely don't want what I deserve. I'm hoping for mercy, not justice.

The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.

To spare the guilty is to injure the innocent.

You do what you do and you pay for your sins and there's no such thing as what might have been.

If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.

I believe that in judging our actions we are more severe than professional judges. We judge not only our actions, but our thoughts, our intentions, our secret curses, our hidden hate.

I suppose I’m the one responsible for destroying myself.

When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.

The difference between justice and forgiveness: To be just is to condemn the fault and, because of the fault, to condemn the doer as well. To forgive is to condemn the fault but to spare the doer. That's what the forgiving God does.

Wouldn't it be much worse if life really were fair and all the terrible things that happen to us happen because we really deserve them?

I’ve blamed her for all of this, for leaving, for ruining me. And maybe that was the seed of it, but from that one little seed grew this tumor of a flowering plant. And I’m the one who nurtures it. I water it. I care for it.I nibble from its poison berries. I let it wrap around my neck, choking the air right out of me. I’ve done that. All by myself. All to myself.

You kill men for the wrongs they have done, not the wrongs that they may do someday.

Do not be merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal, while Justice is all that the innocent man requires.

He that wrongs a friend Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about A silent court of justice in his breast, Himself the judge and jury, and himself The prisoner at the bar ever condemned.