Seneca quotes

c. 4 BC–AD 65 · Roman Stoic philosopher and statesman

Seneca advised Nero, got rich, and wrote beautifully about not needing riches. His Letters to Lucilius are some of the most readable philosophy ever written; we quote Richard Gummere's translation.

4 real · 1 not theirs

Really theirs

4 quotes traced to Seneca's own work or a reliable witness.

Sourced

While we are postponing, life speeds by.

Source: Letters to Lucilius 1, tr. R. M. Gummere

Sourced

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

Source: Letters to Lucilius 13, tr. R. M. Gummere

Sourced

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Source: Letters to Lucilius 2, tr. R. M. Gummere

Sourced

It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.

Source: On the Shortness of Life 1, tr. J. W. Basore

Not theirs

1 famous lines credited to Seneca that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.

Not theirs

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Actually: Not in Seneca's works. The modern wording dates from the 20th century.