Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
Seneca The YoungerRead
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature's needs are simple and accessible, while our efforts often go towards unnecessary things.
This quote from Seneca highlights the distinction between our essential needs, which are often straightforward and easily met, and the excessive desires that lead us to work harder than necessary. It suggests that much of our stress and effort is spent pursuing superfluous goals rather than focusing on what truly matters in life.
Themes
NatureSimplicityDesireEffortNeeds
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about work-life balance, this quote could emphasize the importance of focusing on what is truly necessary.
More from Seneca The Younger
All quotes →No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
Seneca The YoungerRead
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Loyalty is the holiest good in the human heart.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Similar quotes
It's the mix of the trivial and the great events that make up history. It's the low things about high people that make it fascinating, and that's why it would be a shame to exclude the trivial things. That mixing up is not just at the heart of history. It's at the heart of how to live a great life.
Simon Sebag-MontefioreRead
Well, think of what I’m doing to you right now. For me I’m the self, and you’re the object. For you, of course, it’s the exact opposite—you’re the self to you and I’m the object. And by exchanging self and object, we can project ourselves onto the other and gain self-consciousness. Volitionally.” “I still don’t get it, but it sure feels good.” “That’s the whole idea,” the girl said.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Simple assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ, is by Biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving, and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions.
J. I. PackerRead
When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.
Philippe HalsmanRead
...you're waiting because you thought it would follow, you thought there would be some logic, perhaps, something to pull it all together but here we are in the weeds again, here we are in the bowels of the thing: your world doesn't make sense.
Richard SikenRead
The best news of the Christian gospel is that the supremely glorious Creator of the universe has acted in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection to remove every obstacle between us and himself so that we may find everlasting joy in seeing and savoring his infinite beauty.
John PiperRead