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It is my custom every night to run all over the words and actions of the past day; for why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can admonish and forgive myself? I was a little too hot in such a dispute: my opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offense, and did no good at all. The thing was true; but all truths are not to be spoken at all times.

It is my custom every night to run all over the words and actions of the past day; for why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can admonish and forgive myself? I was a little too hot in such a dispute: my opinion might have been as well spared, for it gave offense, and did no good at all. The thing was true; but all truths are not to be spoken at all times.

Approximate author period: c. 32 AD · classical

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Seneca
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 32 AD · classical
author lifetime midpoint (-1–65)
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Recorded source
Thoughts: Selected from the writings of favorite authors (1901) (1901 AD)

Complete signed selection 466; printed byline: Seneca; New York: Dodge Publishing Company, 1901

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Seneca: Sculptural depiction; photograph of an ancient bust

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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