"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult"
"We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them."
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Source: On the Happy Life. Essay by Seneca the Younger (58 AD); later published in Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton Caxtoniana: A Series of Essays on Life, Literature, and Manners, p. 174 (in the essay The Sympathetic Temperment), 1863.
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More quotes by Seneca the Younger
"A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer."
"The important thing about a problem is not its solution, but the strength we gain in finding the solution"
"No one can lead a happy life, or even one that is bearable, without the pursuit of wisdom, and that the perfection of wisdom is what makes the happy life, although even the beginnings of wisdom make life bearable. Yet this conviction, clear as it is, needs to be strengthened and given deeper roots through daily reflection; making noble resolutions is not a important as keeping the resolutions you have made already."
"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. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not."
"Don't stumble over something behind you."