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A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner; it is much better to be confined to a few authors than to wander at random over many.

Seneca the Younger

Precepts are the rules by which we ought to square our lives. When they are contracted into sentences, they strike the affections; whereas admonition is only blowing of the coal.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Affection Coal Squares
It’s unknown the place and uncertain the time where death awaits you; thus you must expect death to find you, every time, at every place.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Period Place Time Uncertain
Light cares cry out; the great ones still are dumb.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Care Dumb Light
Our (the Stoic) motto, as you know, is live according to nature.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Motto Nature Stoic
Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Beneficial Delightful Read
I persist on praising not the life I lead, but that which I ought to lead. I follow it at a mighty distance, crawling
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Distance Inspire Life
When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Distress Fellow Man
One who’s our friend is fond of us; one who’s fond of us isn’t necessarily our friend.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Friend Friendship Necessarily
A great fortune is a great slavery.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Money Philosophical Slavery
A benefit consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Benefit Birthday Done
But when you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of true friendship.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Friend Mistake True Trust Yourself
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Atheist Religious Wise
Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of wretchedness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments. We shall always pray for leisure.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Anxiety Leisure Praying
The fearful face usually betrays great guilt.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Betray Faces Guilt
To be feared is to fear. No one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Able Mind Peace Terror
Of war men ask the outcome, not the cause.
SENECA THE YOUNGER

Men Outcome War

A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner; it is much better to be confined to a few authors than to wander at random over many.

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A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner; it is much better to be confined to a few authors than to wander at random over many.

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Popular Authors

More Seneca the Younger Quotes