QuoteProject
Every reign must submit to a greater reign.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Power is always subject to a higher authority or force.

This quote by Seneca signifies that no matter how powerful a ruler or authority may seem, there will always be a greater force or power that commands respect and ultimately controls the fate of all reigns. It reflects on the transient nature of power and the idea that all leadership is ultimately held in check by something larger than itself, be it fate, moral law, or the will of the people.

Themes

PowerAuthorityHumilityLeadershipControlFate

In practice

Example use cases

In a leadership seminar discussing the nature of authority.

More from Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. There is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
The things hardest to bear are sweetest to remember.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead

Similar quotes

The greater the ambiguity, the greater the pleasure.
Milan KunderaRead
I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
Warsan ShireRead
True humility-the basis of the Christian system-is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.
Edmund BurkeRead
I sit in the sky like a sphinx misunderstood; My heart of snow is wed to the whiteness of swans; I hate the movement that displaces the rigid lines, With lips untaught neither tears nor laughter do I know.
Charles BaudelaireRead
We might say that psychoanalysis revealed to us the complex penalties of denying the truth of man's condition, what we might call the costs of pretending not to be mad.
Ernest BeckerRead
I think of life as an inn where I have to stay until the abyss coach arrives. I don't know where it will take me, for I know nothing.
Fernando PessoaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Lucius Annaeus Seneca | QuoteProject