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Seneca on fatherhood, character, and how to live

13 sourced quotes from Seneca, each with the original work, the year, and links to a primary or scholarly source you can check yourself. Selected for what they say to a man raising children.

“Virtue withers without an adversary.”
De Providentia (On Providence), Section 2.4 (c. 62 AD)
“Fire tests gold; adversity tests brave men.”
De Providentia (On Providence), Section 5.9 (c. 62 AD)
“It is best to endure what you cannot change.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter CVII (c. 65 AD)
“Lay hold of to-day's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter I, c. 65 AD
“Long is the road through precepts, short and effective through examples.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter VI (c. 65 AD)
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter XIII, Section 4 (c. 65 AD)
“Every day ought to be regulated as if it closed the series, as if it rounded out and completed our existence.”
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12.8, c. 63 AD
“That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension.”
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12.9, c. 63 AD
“It is with life as it is with a play,—it matters not how long the action is spun out, but how good the acting is.”
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 77.20, c. 65 AD
“Claim yourself for yourself. Gather and save the time which till lately was being cut into, stolen from you, or had simply slipped away.”
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter I, c. 65 AD
“I am glad to learn, in order that I may teach. Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of…”
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter VI, c. 64 AD
“We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.”
On Benefits, Book II, c. 56 AD
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it. Life is long enough... if it were all well invested.”
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter I, c. 49 AD

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

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Works quoted here: De Providentia (On Providence), Section 2.4 (c. 62 AD), De Providentia (On Providence), Section 5.9 (c. 62 AD), Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter CVII (c. 65 AD), Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter I, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter VI (c. 65 AD), Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Letter XIII, Section 4 (c. 65 AD), Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12.8, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 12.9, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 77.20, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter I, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter VI, On Benefits, Book II, On the Shortness of Life, Chapter I.