Seneca the Younger Quotes

Self-control is the only possible road to character development

The battle for self-discipline may leave you a bit bruised and battered but always a better person.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.

Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Self conquest is the greatest of victories.

The scar will remain, but it is better for a man to lose both arms than his soul; and these hard years, instead of being lost, may be made the most precious of your lives, if they teach you to rule yourselves.

The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.

When we teach ourselves and our children discipline, we are teaching them and ourselves how to suffer and also how to grow.

It is not only by one's impulses that one achieves greatness, but also by patiently filing away the steel wall that separates what one feels from what one is capable of doing.

Reflect upon the defects of your character: thoroughly realize their evils and the transient pleasures they give you, and firmly will that you shall try your best not to yield to them the next time.

Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

Self-discipline is the golden key; without it, you cannot be happy.

Resistance, whether to one's appetites or to the ways of the world, is a chief factor in the shaping of character.

Cultivate will power, that massive creative force that God the creator built into you. Do not let it remain flabby but strengthen it by use and exercise.

In the end, it's a mental maturity to let your best come out.

Victory in physical battles requires strength, muscles, and skill; but the fight is never tougher and victory is never sweeter than in the battles over self.

I can tell you character traits I admire and work to develop in myself - perseverance, self-discipline, courage to stand up for what is right even when it is against one's friends or one's self.

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

Curiosity, rationalization, and laziness are no match against courage, self-control, and mental toughness.

I constantly push my body to meet what my mind wants me to be able to do.

By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.

It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.