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Mercy oft doth offer death, not life.

— Seneca the Younger

Mortem misericors saepe pro vita dabit.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

line 329; (Pyrrhus)

Variants

Mercy often means giving death, not life. (trans. Emily Wilson)

More quotes by Seneca the Younger

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

Prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.

Fortune is less severe against those of lesser degree, and God strikes what is weak with less power.

Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Seneca the Younger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.