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If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.

— Seneca the Younger

Si sapis, alterum alteri misce: nec speraveris sine desperatione nec desperaveris sine spe.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Line 12

Variants

Hope not without despair, despair not without hope. (translated by Zachariah Rush).

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.