Q0034

Seneca

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Leisure without study is death — a tomb for a living man.
Thinker Seneca
School Stoicism
Source Letters; traditional form of Seneca's theme on learning
Theme Learning
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Letters; traditional form of Seneca's theme on learning, 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 learning, 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.). Leisure without study is death — a tomb for a living man. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0034

MLA: Seneca. “Leisure without study is death — a tomb….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0034.

Chicago: Seneca. “Leisure without study is death — a tomb….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0034.

Same thinker

More from Seneca

  1. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
  2. Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling.
  3. There are more things that frighten us than crush us, and we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
  4. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  5. If you wish to be loved, love.

All quotations by Seneca

Same theme

More on learning

  1. The Master said: Is it not a pleasure to learn and to practice what one has learned in due time? Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar? Is it not the mark of a gentleman to remain unresentful when others fail to appreciate one?
  2. The Master said: When three people walk together, one of them is sure to be my teacher. I select what is good in them and follow it; what is not good, I correct in myself.
  3. Zengzi said: Each day I examine myself on three counts: In acting on behalf of others, have I been loyal? In dealings with friends, have I been trustworthy? Have I practiced what was passed on to me?
  4. The Master said: Those who know it are not equal to those who love it; those who love it are not equal to those who delight in it.
  5. Indigo is taken from the indigo plant, yet is bluer than the plant; ice is made of water, yet is colder than water.

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