Seneca the Younger on Knowledge

"You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere."

"I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith."

"Would you know what makes men greedy for the future? It is because no one has yet found himself."

"Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours."

"Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection."

"You will thus understand that what you fear is either insignificant or short-lived."

"Great also are the souls of the defenders—men who know that, as long as the path to death lies open, the blockade is not complete, men who breathe their last in the arms of liberty."

"For what else are you busied with except improving yourself every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself?"

"Alexander, king of Macedon, began to study geometry; unhappy man, because he would thereby learn how puny was that earth of which he had seized but a fraction! Unhappy man, I repeat, because he was bound to understand that he was bearing a false title. For who can be “great” in that which is puny?"

"Let words proceed as they please, provided only your soul keeps its own sure order, provided your soul is great and holds unruffled to its ideals, pleased with itself on account of the very things which displease others, a soul that makes life the test of its progress, and believes that its knowledge is in exact proportion to its freedom from desire and its freedom from fear."