There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.
Whether the prayer of Seneca was granted we do not know; but, as we do not again hear of Marcus, it is probable that he died before his father, and that the line of Seneca, like that of so many great men, became extinct in the second generation.
There was living in the palace at this time a brother of the great Germanicus, and consequently an uncle of the late emperor, whose name was Claudius Caesar.
But in the life of every man there are influences of a far more real and penetrating character than those which come through the medium of schools or teachers.
No man can pass into eternity, for he is already in it.
Man's liberty ends, and it ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of its neighbors.
The decision of such judges as Claudius and his Senate is worth very little in the question of a man's innocence or guilt; but the sentence was that Seneca should be banished to the island of Corsica.
Seneca brings vividly before us a picture of the various scholars assembled in a school of the philosophers.
If ever I want to amuse myself with an idiot, I have not far to look for one. I laugh at myself.
For although Claudius had been accused of gambling and drunkenness, not only were no worse sins laid to his charge, but he had successfully established some claim to being considered a learned man.
