Seneca

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.”

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.”

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

“He who is brave is free.”

“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”

“True joy is a serious thing.”

“The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.”

“Wisdom is the only freedom.”

“There is a god within thee.”

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

“All this is not yours, but only lent — even the time we lose.”

“Take care lest reading many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady.”

“It is better to know one author thoroughly than many superficially.”

“There is nothing the wise man does reluctantly.”

“He escapes necessity, because he wills to do what necessity is about to force upon him.”

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”