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Quotes by Roman Authors
"There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality."
"It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment."
"It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life."
"Silence is one of the great arts of conversation."
"Whatever this is that I am, it is a little flesh and breath, and the ruling part. Throw away thy books; no longer distract thyself: it is not allowed; but as if thou wast now dying, despise the flesh; it is blood and bones and a network, a contexture of nerves, veins, and arteries. See the breath also, what kind of a thing it is, air, and not always the same, but every moment sent out and again sucked in. The third then is the ruling part: consider thus: Thou art an old man; no longer let this be a slave, no longer be pulled by the strings like a puppet to unsocial movements, no longer be either dissatisfied with thy present lot, or shrink from the future."
"Accustom yourself not to be disregarding of what someone else has to say: as far as possible enter into the mind of the speaker."
"It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others."
"In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain."
"The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others."
"When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank."
"Reprove your friends in secret, praise them openly."
"So let those people go on weeping and wailing whose self-indulgent minds have been weakened by long prosperity, let them collapse at the threat of the most trivial injuries; but let those who have spent all their years suffering disasters endure the worst afflictions with a brave and resolute staunchness. Everlasting misfortune does have one blessing, that it ends up by toughening those whom it constantly afflicts."
"Barley porridge, or a crust of barley bread, and water do not make a very cheerful diet, but nothing gives one keener pleasure than having the ability to derive pleasure even from that-- and the feeling of having arrived at something which one cannot be deprived of by any unjust stroke of fortune."
"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
"Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall."
"Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears."
"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."
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