Seneca the Younger
Often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger, was a Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and humorist.
inveniet viam aut faciet.
Oculis de homine non credo, habeo melius et certius lumen quo a falsis uera diiudicem: animi bonum animus inueniat.
quid est sapienta? semper idem velle atque idem nolle.
The spirit in which a thing is given determines that in which the debt is acknowledged; it's the intention, not the face-value of the gift, that's weighed. (translator unknown).
Time discovers truth. (translator unknown).
mens regnum bona possidet.
Is qui scit plurimum, rumor.
Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.
Iniqua raro maximis virtutibus fortuna parcit ; nemo se tuto diu periculis offerre tam crebris potest ; quem saepe transit casus, aliquando invenit.
Si sapis, alterum alteri misce: nec speraveris sine desperatione nec desperaveris sine spe.
qualis quisque sit scies, si quemadmodum laudet, quemadmodum laudetur aspexeris.
Magna pars hominum est quae non peccatis irascitur, sed peccantibus.
This can be related to other expressions on the ethics of reciprocity, often referred to as the variants of the Golden Rule.
quaeritur belli exitus, non causa.
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.
sic cum inferiore vivas quemadmodum tecum superiorem velis vivere.
He who profits by crime commits it. (translator unknown).
Cui prodest scelus, is fecit.
It is too late to be thrifty when the bottom has been reached. (translator unknown).
Whether we believe the Greek poet, "it is sometimes even pleasant to be mad", or Plato, "he who is master of himself has knocked in vain at the doors of poetry"; or Aristotle, "no great genius was without a mixture of insanity"; the mind cannot express anything lofty and above the ordinary unless inspired. When it despises the common and the customary, and with sacred inspiration rises higher, then at length it sings something grander than that which can come from mortal lips. It cannot attain anything sublime and lofty so long as it is sane: it must depart from the customary, swing itself aloft, take the bit in its teeth, carry away its rider and bear him to a height whither he would have feared to ascend alone.