Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
Seneca The YoungerRead
I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the idea that one's identity and purpose extend beyond local or limited boundaries.
Seneca the Younger suggests that human beings should not confine themselves to a small area or limited mindset; instead, we should embrace the world as our home and seek to connect with diverse cultures, ideas, and experiences. This perspective encourages a broader understanding of humanity and our place within it, promoting openness and a sense of belonging to the global community.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students to think globally.
Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.
No tree becomes rooted and sturdy unless many a wind assails it. For by its very tossing it tightens its grip and plants its roots more securely; the fragile trees are those that have grown in a sunny valley.
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.
To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
Loyalty is the holiest good in the human heart.
What can any one person do?' he said. 'Each person does a little something,' I said, 'and there you are.
The idea that women are innately gentle is a fantasy, and a historically recent one. Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, is depicted as wreathed in male human skulls; the cruel entertainments of the Romans drew audiences as female as they were male; Boudicca led her British troops bloodily into battle.
Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitivities to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invading armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior.
Whatever we believe about how we got to be the extraordinary creatures we are today is far less important than bringing our intellect to bear on how do we get together now around the world and get out of the mess that we've made. That's the key thing now. Never mind how we got to be who we are.
It is greater than the stars - that moving procession of human energy; greater than the palpitating earth and the things growing thereon.
Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.
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