Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Controlling one's desires is essential for true freedom.
In this quote, Seneca emphasizes the importance of self-control over one's desires and appetites. He suggests that a person who governs their desires and impulses wisely is more liberated than one who succumbs to their whims, as true freedom is found in mastery over oneself rather than in the indulgence of uncontrolled appetites.
Themes
AppetiteLibertySelf-ControlFreedomWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on self-discipline, one might quote Seneca to illustrate the link between self-governance and personal freedom.
More from Lucius Annaeus Seneca
All quotes βEverything 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
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaRead
Similar quotes
I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people...The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off.
Albert PierrepointRead
My autobiography is a digressive illustration and exemplification of what race has meant in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead
Let it crumble! Let the rocks revile me and flowers wilt at my coming. Your whole universe is not enough to prove me wrong. You are the king of gods, king of stones and stars, king of the waves of the sea. But you are not the king of man.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Truth is the agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God.
Jonathan EdwardsRead
The soul is indestructible and its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
CERBERUS, n. The watch-dog of Hades, whose duty it was to guard the entrance - against whom or what does not clearly appear; everybody, sooner or later, had to go there, and nobody wanted to carry off the entrance.
Ambrose BierceRead