Seneca the Younger Quotes

The only thing that I am ambitious about is to live a good life. Full stop.

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.

People have to know there is more to living than physical things.

I once wanted to be a personage. Now I am comfortable being a person.

Work is important to me. I want to do things for principle, not just for the sake of doing them.

A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.

I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself.

Just try to do the right thing, and that's immediate karma: 'I feel good about myself.'

Man is most happy, when his own actions are arguments and examples of his virtue.

I'm not looking for anybody or anything. I'm just living my life.

The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully through this world and on beyond.

Never to wrong others takes one a long way towards peace of mind.

In other words, we are never freer than when we become most ourselves, most human, most just, most excellent, and the like.

There is nothing so noble and so right as to play our human life well and fitly, nor anything so difficult to learn as how to livethis life well and according to Nature.

A man is not to aim at innocence, any more than he is to aim at hair, but he is to keep it.

I think that ethical behaviour is another feature of the kind of inner discipline that leads to a happier existence.

Empowerment is the inner joy of knowing that external force isn't necessary to be at harmony with oneself.

You have only to exist as you do and to live your life as best you can.

Self-respect leads to self-discipline.

As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace. You will define yourself from within, rather than by people's opinions or by comparisons to others.

Today I feel that I shall win through. I have come to the gateway of the simple; I am now content to see things as they are. I have gained freedom myself; I shall allow freedom to others. In my work will be my salvation.

A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.

You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.