We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed! What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired?
Seneca The ElderRead
The sun also shines on the wicked.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Good fortune and happiness can occur to anyone, regardless of their morality.
This quote by Seneca the Elder implies that life is impartial; it bestows blessings like sunlight on both the virtuous and the wicked alike. It serves as a reminder that good and bad people alike experience the joys and challenges of life, highlighting the randomness and fairness of nature.
Themes
JusticeMoralityFortuneNatureLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about justice, this quote could illustrate that life does not always reward good behavior.
More from Seneca The Elder
All quotes βWe can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.
Seneca The ElderRead
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
Seneca The ElderRead
Let us be brave in the face of adversity.
Seneca The ElderRead
The courts of kings are full of people, but empty of friends.
Seneca The ElderRead
What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you.
Seneca The ElderRead
Similar quotes
It is easy for us to criticize the prejudices of our grandfathers, from which our fathers freed themselves. It is more difficult to distance ourselves from our own views, so that we can dispassionately search for prejudices among the beliefs and values we hold
Peter SingerRead
Every man must be content with that glory which he may have at home.
BoethiusRead
Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.
Margaret ThatcherRead
I donβt feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for love relationships is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we donβt know what will be the end.
Michel FoucaultRead
But I'm a bad priest, you see. I know--from experience--how much beauty Satan carried down with him when he fell. Nobody ever said the fallen angels were the ugly ones. Oh, no, they were just as quick and light and . . .
Graham GreeneRead
All the Dachaus must remain standing.
Rod SerlingRead