Character: Seneca. Page 1

All of us will be hidden by the deep abyss of time, only a few of the most gifted will emerge from it and, although someday they will be swallowed up by the same silence, they will resist oblivion and will stay away for a long time.

The difference between the old and the new life is the same as between brilliance and light: light has a definite source and is bright in itself, the brilliance sparkles with borrowed rays.

Believe me, your words, spoken in rags, from a squalid bed, will seem more dignified, for then they will not only be spoken, but also proven.

So shouldn't poverty be loved for the fact that it clearly shows who loves us?

People do not know what they want until that moment, until they want something.

No one knows for sure what he wants, and if he does, then he does not achieve his goal with perseverance, but jumps to something else and not only changes his intentions, but also returns back to what he left and what he himself condemned.

The first duty of the wise and the first sign of wisdom is not to allow discrepancy between word and deed and to be always yourself.

A small loan makes a person your debtor, a big enemy.

He is mistaken who looks for friends in the hallway, but tests them at the table. The greatest misfortune of a man who is busy and absorbed in his possessions is that he thinks of many as friends, not being their friend, and thinks that he makes friends by virtue, while people most of all hate those to whom they owe the most.

First look at who you eat and drink with, and then what you eat and drink. After all, getting drunk without friends is a matter of a lion or a wolf.

The peaks, their very height, amaze with thunder.

One of the pledges of security is not to strive for it openly: after all, from what we hold on, we condemn.

We are most in awe of what threatens the power of others: after all, such a misfortune comes with great noise and confusion.

After all, everyone, once having lost peace, is ready to give himself free rein and will not believe the fear in reality.