Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes, Sayings, Remarks, Thoughts and Speeches
Lucius Annaeus Seneca Quotes and Sayings
- 1
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
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- 2
A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
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- 3
A great fortune is a great slavery.
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- 4
A great mind becomes a great fortune.
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- 5
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
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- 6
A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.
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- 7
A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.
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- 8
A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.
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- 9
A man's as miserable as he thinks he is.
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- 10
A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.
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- 11
A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.
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- 12
A punishment to some, to some a gift, and to many a favor.
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- 13
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
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- 14
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.
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- 15
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
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- 16
All art is but imitation of nature.
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- 17
All cruelty springs from weakness.
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- 18
Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.
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- 19
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
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- 20
Anger: an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.
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- 21
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
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- 22
As long as you live, keep learning how to live.
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- 23
Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
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- 24
Behold a worthy sight, to which the God, turning his attention to his own work, may direct his gaze. Behold an equal thing, worthy of a God, a brave man matched in conflict with evil fortune.
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- 25
Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders.
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- 26
Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
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- 27
Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.
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- 28
Consider, when you are enraged at any one, what you would probably think if he should die during the dispute.
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- 29
Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.
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- 30
Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.
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- 31
Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
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- 32
Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.
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- 33
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
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- 34
Do everything as in the eye of another.
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- 35
Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.
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- 36
Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.
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- 37
Every guilty person is his own hangman.
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- 38
Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.
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- 39
Every reign must submit to a greater reign.
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- 40
Every sin is the result of a collaboration.
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- 41
Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.
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- 42
Everywhere is nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
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- 43
Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.
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- 44
For greed all nature is too little.
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- 45
For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.
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- 46
Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.
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- 47
God is the universal substance in existing things. He comprises all things. He is the fountain of all being. In Him exists everything that is.
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- 48
Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.
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- 49
He has committed the crime who profits by it.
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- 50
He that does good to another does good also to himself.
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- 51
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
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- 52
He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.
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- 53
He who has great power should use it lightly.
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- 54
He who is brave is free.
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- 55
Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.
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- 56
I don't consider myself bald, I'm just taller than my hair.
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- 57
I don't trust liberals, I trust conservatives.
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- 58
I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.
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- 59
I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.
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- 60
I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?
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- 61
If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.
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- 62
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
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- 63
If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.
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- 64
If you judge, investigate.
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- 65
If you wished to be loved, love.
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- 66
If you would judge, understand.
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- 67
Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.
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- 68
In war there is no prize for runner-up.
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- 69
In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.
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- 70
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
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- 71
It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.
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- 72
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.
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- 73
It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.
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- 74
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
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- 75
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
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- 76
It is quality rather than quantity that matters.
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- 77
It is the failing of youth not to be able to restrain its own violence.
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- 78
It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.
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- 79
It is the sign of a great mind to dislike greatness, and to prefer things in measure to things in excess.
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- 80
It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man and the security of a god.
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- 81
It makes a great deal of difference whether one wills not to sin or has not the knowledge to sin.
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- 82
It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.
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- 83
Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.
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- 84
Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light. Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky. Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.
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- 85
Life is warfare.
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- 86
Life, if well lived, is long enough.
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- 87
Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.
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- 88
Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.
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- 89
Love in its essence is spiritual fire.
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- 90
May be is very well, but Must is the master. It is my duty to show justice without recompense.
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- 91
Modesty forbids what the law does not.
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- 92
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
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- 93
Night brings our troubles to the light, rather than banishes them.
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- 94
No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.
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- 95
No man enjoys the true taste of life, but he who is ready and willing to quit it.
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- 96
No man was ever wise by chance.
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- 97
No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.
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- 98
No one is laughable who laughs at himself.
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- 99
No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.
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- 100
Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.
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- 101
Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.
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- 102
Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.
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- 103
Nothing is void of God, his work is everywhere his full of himself.
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- 104
One crime has to be concealed by another.
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- 105
One must steer, not talk.
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- 106
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.
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- 107
Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.
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- 108
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
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- 109
Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.
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- 110
Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.
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- 111
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
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- 112
See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.
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- 113
Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
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- 114
Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.
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- 115
Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
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- 116
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
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- 117
So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.
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- 118
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
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- 119
Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.
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- 120
Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.
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- 121
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
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- 122
That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.
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- 123
That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.
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- 124
The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.
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- 125
The bad fortune of the good turns their faces up to heaven; the good fortune of the bad bows their heads down to the earth.
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- 126
The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.
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- 127
The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.
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- 128
The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.
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- 129
The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.
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- 130
The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.
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- 131
The first step in a person's salvation is knowledge of their sin.
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- 132
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
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- 133
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
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- 134
The heart is great which shows moderation in the midst of prosperity.
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- 135
The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.
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- 136
The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.
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- 137
The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.
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- 138
The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man... It is more powerful than external circumstances.
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- 139
The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember.
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- 140
The way is long if one follows precepts, but short... if one follows patterns.
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- 141
The wish for healing has always been half of health.
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- 142
There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.
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- 143
There is a noble manner of being poor, and who does not know it will never be rich.
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- 144
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
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- 145
There is no delight in owning anything unshared.
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- 146
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
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- 147
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.
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- 148
There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.
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- 149
There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.
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- 150
Those who boast of their descent, brag on what they owe to others.
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- 151
Time discovers truth.
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- 152
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.
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- 153
To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.
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- 154
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
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- 155
True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.
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- 156
We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.
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- 157
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.
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- 158
We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
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- 159
We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.
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- 160
We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.
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- 161
We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.
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- 162
What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.
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- 163
What is true belongs to me!
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- 164
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.
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- 165
Whatever fortune has raised to a height, she has raised only to cast it down.
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- 166
Whatever is well said by another, is mine.
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- 167
Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart.
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- 168
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
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- 169
When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.
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- 170
When we are well, we all have good advice for those who are ill.
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- 171
Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.
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- 172
Where fear is, happiness is not.
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- 173
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
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- 174
While we are postponing, life speeds by.
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- 175
Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?
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- 176
Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
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- 177
Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life - in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.
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- 178
You learn to know a pilot in a storm.
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- 179
You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.
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