Q0027

Seneca

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Thinker Seneca
School Stoicism
Source Letters to Lucilius, Ep. 104.26
Theme Courage
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Letters to Lucilius, Ep. 104.26, within the tradition of Stoicism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of courage, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Seneca's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Seneca. (n.d.). It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0027

MLA: Seneca. “It is not because things are difficult that….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0027.

Chicago: Seneca. “It is not because things are difficult that….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0027.

Same thinker

More from Seneca

  1. Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling.
  2. There are more things that frighten us than crush us, and we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
  3. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  4. If you wish to be loved, love.
  5. There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.

All quotations by Seneca

Same theme

More on courage

  1. It is worse to do injustice than to suffer it.
  2. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.
  3. Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding!
  4. Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
  5. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Browse the courage theme