“We should see to it that whatever we have absorbed should not be allowed to remain unchanged, or it will be no part of us. We must digest it: otherwise it will merely enter the memory and not the reasoning power [in memoriam non in ingenium]. Let us loyally welcome such foods and make them our own, so that something that is one may be formed out of many elements, just as one number is formed of several elements.”
—Seneca.
“No one learns to lie down contentedly in a bed of roses, if the need arises, but rather we steel ourselves for this: to not betray a confidence under torture, or to stand guard, though wounded, through the night if the need arises, without even leaning on an upright spear, since sleep has a way of sneaking up on those who lean against some support.”
—Seneca.
“We should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it.”
—Seneca.
“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”
—Seneca.
“You will fall upon me confident and heedless. It is true you struck someone else, but you aimed at me.”
“It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.”
—Seneca (“Of Providence”).
“We must take a higher view of all things, and bear with them more easily: it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to lament over it. Add to this that he who laughs at the human race deserves better of it than he who mourns for it, for the former leaves it some good hopes of improvement, while the latter stupidly weeps over what he has given up all hopes of mending…. Yet it is better to accept public morals and human vices calmly without bursting into either laughter or tears; for to be hurt by the sufferings of others is to be forever miserable, while to enjoy the suffering of others is an inhuman pleasure.” —Seneca.
