Seneca

“You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere.”

Key takeaway

You cannot blindly follow everyone, but spend time learning from the great thinkers to develop your own ideas

“Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach.”

Key takeaway

The best way to learn is to teach

“Hence Heraclitus, whose obscure style gave him his surname, remarked: “One day is equal to every day.”

Key takeaway

Every day counts. Every possession matters.

“Endure all this for three or four days at a time, sometimes for more, so that it may be a test of yourself instead of a mere hobby. Then, I assure you, my dear Lucilius, you will leap for joy when filled with a pennyworth of food, and you will understand that a man’s peace of mind does not depend upon Fortune; for, even when angry she grants enough for our needs.”

Key takeaway

Sometimes you need to live on rice and beans to truly cherish more than that

“Let us become intimate with poverty, so that Fortune may not catch us off our guard. We shall be rich with all the more comfort, if we once learn how far poverty is from being a burden.”

Key takeaway

If you can live on nothing than you can survive on anything

“Remembering is merely safeguarding something entrusted to the memory; knowing, however, means making everything your own; it means not depending upon the copy and not all the time glancing back at the master.”

Key takeaway

Regurgitating does not mean you know something. You must contribute something to the idea to truly own it

“What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open a new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover.”

Key takeaway

Don’t just follow the footsteps of the greats blindly, if you can blaze a new path for an idea then by all means go ahead!

“All art is but imitation of nature.”

Key takeaway

Art is nothing more than observation of nature

“There is no life that is not short. Compared with the world of nature.”

Key takeaway

All lives are short in the cosmic sense

“The most important contribution to peace of mind is never to do wrong.”

Key takeaway

If you don’t do anything wrong then what do you have to worry about?

“And Nature moderates this world-kingdom which you see, by her changing seasons: clear weather follows cloudy; after a calm, comes the storm; the winds blow by turns; day succeeds night; some of the heavenly bodies rise, and some set. Eternity consists of opposites.”

Key takeaway

Mother Nature is the ultimate yin and yang

“Thing are not to be gathered at random; nor should they be greedily attacked in the mass; one will arrive at a knowledge of the whole by studying the parts.”

Key takeaway

Go to first principles to learn

“We talk much about despising money, and we give advice on this subject in the lengthiest of speeches, that mankind may believe true riches to exist in the mind and not in one’s bank account, and that the man who adapts himself to his slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum, is the truly rich man.”

Key takeaway

True wealth is in the mind and those that can live on little will be able to go farther and endure more

“We are more industrious, and we are better men if we anticipate the day and welcome the dawn; but we are base churls if we lie dozing when the sun is high in the heavens, or if we wake up only when noon arrives; and even then to many it seems not yet dawn.”

Key takeaway

You can get more done during the day by waking up early

“Many of our troubles may be explained from the fact that we live according to a pattern, and, instead of arranging our lives according to reason, are led astray by convention.”

Key takeaway

Question everything and make sure what you do has reason that you believe in

“What insult is there in telling me what everyone sees?”

Key takeaway

Don’t let the obvious hurt you a la being a ginger