Seneca the Younger

"Não se atiram pedras senão às árvores que têm fruto."

"Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point. The false has no limits. When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless. Recall your steps, therefore, from idle things, and when you would know whether that which you seek is based upon a natural or upon a misleading desire, consider whether it can stop at any definite point. If you find, after having travelled far, that there is a more distant goal always in view, you may be sure that this condition is contrary to nature."

"Mos antiquis fuit, usque ad meam servatus aetatem, primis epistulae verbis adicere 'si vales bene est, ego valeo'. Recte nos dicimus 'si philosopharis, bene est'. Valere enim hoc demum est. Sine hoc aeger est animus."

"Quaeris Alcidae parem? Nemo est nisi ipse."

"rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor."

"inveniet viam aut faciet."

"qui genus iactat suum, aliena laudat."

"Mortem misericors saepe pro vita dabit."

"ars prima regni est posse invidiam pati."

"arma non servant modum; nec temperari facile nec reprimi potest stricti ensis ira; bella delectat cruor."

"quaeritur belli exitus, non causa."

"Cogi qui potest nescit mori."

"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via."

"quae fuit durum pati, meminisse dulce est."

"Sera parsimonia in fundo est."

"Tanta stultitia mortalium est."

"Pyrrhus: Lex nulla capto parcit aut poenam impedit. Agamemnon: Quod non vetat lex, hoc vetat fieri pudor. Pyr: Quodcumque libuit facere victori licet. Agam.: Minimum decet libere cui multum licet."

"Levis est dolor qui capere consilium potest."

"Qui nil potest sperare, desperate nihil."

"Iniqua nunquam regna perpetuo manent."

"Cui prodest scelus, is fecit."

"Curae leues locuntur, ingentes stupent."

"scelere velandum est scelus."

"Mens impudicam facere, non casus, solet."

"mens regnum bona possidet."

"Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi"

"peior est bello timor ipse belli."

"Quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat, qui diem aestimet, qui intellegat se cotidie mori?"

"In hoc enim fallimur, quod mortem prospicimus: magna pars eius iam praeterit; quidquid aetatis retro est mors tenet."

"Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by."

"Qui non vetat peccare cum possit, iubet."

"Iniqua raro maximis virtutibus fortuna parcit ; nemo se tuto diu periculis offerre tam crebris potest; quem saepe transit casus, aliquando invenit."

"The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company."

"Nusquam est qui ubique est. Vitam in peregrinatione exigentibus hoc evenit, ut multa hospitia habeant, nullas amicitias."

"Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est."

"Nam illa tumultu gaudens non est industria sed exagitatae mentis concursatio."

"Nulli potest secura vita contingere qui de producenda nimis cogitat."

"Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die."

"No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him."

"I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies, and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavour to become a better man."

"Plus tamen tibi et viva vox et convictus quam oratio proderit; in rem praesentem venias oportet, primum quia homines amplius oculis quam auribus credunt, deinde quia longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla."

"“What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind."

"But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you."

"Recede in te ipse quantum potes; cum his versare qui te meliorem facturi sunt, illos admitte quos tu potes facere meliores. Mutuo ista fiunt, et homines dum docent discunt."

"sic vive cum hominibus tamquam deus videat, si loquere cum deo tamquam homines audiant."

"sciant quae optima sunt esse communia."

"... the only contestant who can confidently enter the lists is the man who has seen his own blood, who has felt his teeth rattle beneath his opponent’s fist, who has been tripped and felt the full force of his adversary’s charge, who has been downed in body but not in spirit, one who, as often as he falls, rises again with greater defiance than ever."

"Let another say. “Perhaps the worst will not happen.” You yourself must say. “Well, what if it does happen? Let us see who wins! Perhaps it happens for my best interests; it may be that such a death will shed credit upon my life.”"

"Socrates was ennobled by the hemlock draught. Wrench from Cato's hand his sword, the vindicator of liberty, and you deprive him of the greatest share of his glory."

"To be angry with a man is to hate him; to hate him is to wish him harm; but to wish him well, even if he has done you harm, is the mark of a great mind."