All art is but imitation of nature. — Seneca · Smartyfair

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All art is but imitation of nature. — Seneca · Smartyfair

All art is but imitation of nature.

Seneca4–65 BC · philosopher · Ancient RomeSeneca was a Roman philosopher, playwright, and advisor to emperors who wrote thoughtful letters and essays about how to live a calm, meaningful life.11 quotes

Source foundNature

In plain words

Every artist is really copying something nature did first.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 85% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: Letters to Lucilius, Letter LXV ("On the First Cause").
Sources checked: en.wikiquote.orgChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 20 August 2026Sourced to Letter LXV

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More from Seneca

For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.

More on nature

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Ancient

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

Seneca

Men learn while they teach.

It is equally faulty to trust everyone and to trust no one.

No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.

Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself.

Clouds come floating into my life from other days no longer to shed rain or usher storm but to give colour to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A violent wind does not outlast the morning; a squall of rain does not outlast the day. Such is the course of Nature.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Henry David Thoreau

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.