Seneca the Younger
Often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger, was a Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and humorist.
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.
That man lives badly who does not know how to die well.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili: sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos...
The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation (translated by Richard M. Gummere).
postea noli rogare quod inpetrare nolueris.
Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got. (translator unknown).
Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. (translator unknown)
Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes uiros.
Nusquam est qui ubique est. Vitam in peregrinatione exigentibus hoc evenit, ut multa hospitia habeant, nullas amicitias.
A good mind possesses a kingdom. (translator unknown).
Sapiens vivit quantum debet, non quantum potest.
numquam vacat lascivire districtis, nihilque tam certum est quam otii vitia negotio discuti.
You will understand that there is nothing dreadful in this except fear itself. (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.
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.