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Who really said it

When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind

Written by Seneca the Younger c. 4 BC – AD 65 · Roman Stoic philosopher & statesman
Verified Free to reuse

Genuinely Seneca. The line closes a thought in his ‘Moral Letters to Lucilius’, Letter 71 (“On the Supreme Good”), §3: “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim.” This exact English is Richard M. Gummere’s 1920 Loeb translation of the Latin “Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.”

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind” — Seneca the Younger, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 71 (trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1920)

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Provenance

The source

Work
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter 71, “On the Supreme Good,” §3
Written
c. AD 63–65
Latin
“Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.”
Translation
Richard M. Gummere, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. II (1920)

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Gummere’s 1920 Loeb rendering of Letter 71, §3. The two sentences run together in Seneca’s text; the harbour line is the punchline of the first.

Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 71 (Wikisource)

How we know

Public domain

Seneca’s Latin has been in the public domain for two millennia. The precise English wording shown here is Richard M. Gummere’s translation, first published in the Loeb Classical Library in 1920 — before 1931, so it is public domain in the United States. A different modern translation of the same passage could still be in copyright.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

Wait — isn't this Oscar Wilde?

The line is authentically Seneca’s, but it circulates under the wrong name and in reworded forms that Seneca never wrote.

Oscar Wilde No evidence

The saying circulates — especially in German, as “Günstige Winde kann nur der nutzen, der weiß, wohin er will” — credited to Wilde. Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence linking it to Wilde, who “attracts a large number of spurious attributions.”

Paraphrasers Reworded

Popular forms such as “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable” (the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations wording) and “If a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is favourable” (an 1881 Latin schoolbook) are later reworkings of the same Latin, per Quote Investigator.

The thought and the words are Seneca’s, from Letter 71 of the Moral Letters to Lucilius; this exact English is Gummere’s 1920 translation of “Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est” — see Wikisource.

Context

Why it endures

Seneca’s point in Letter 71 is not about sailing at all: it is that a life without a settled aim cannot judge what helps or hinders it. If you don’t know your destination, no circumstance is ‘favourable,’ because you have no standard by which to call it so.

When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

The surrounding argument

The maxim caps the sentence “Our plans miscarry because they have no aim,” part of Seneca’s larger claim in Letter 71 that the supreme good — virtue — is the one fixed harbour that gives every other choice its direction.

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Purpose

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: destination port & favorable windquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the saying to Seneca, prints the Latin, and finds no evidence for the Oscar Wilde attribution.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 71 (Wikisource)en.wikisource.org

Full Gummere translation; the harbour line sits in section 3.
Seneca, Epistles Vol. II (66–92), Loeb Classical Libraryloebclassics.com

The 1920 Gummere Loeb edition that is the source of the exact English wording.
Ad Lucilium epistulae morales, trans. Gummere (Internet Archive)archive.org

Scanned public-domain Loeb volume of Seneca's letters in Gummere's translation.
Seneca, Letters to Lucilius (ToposText)topostext.org

Searchable Latin-and-English text of the Epistulae Morales for checking context.

The true author

About Seneca the Younger

Seneca the Younger

c. 4 BC – AD 65 · Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist & statesman

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, called “the Younger,” was a Roman Stoic philosopher, playwright, and adviser to the emperor Nero. His Epistulae Morales ad Lucilius — 124 letters on ethics and the good life — are among the most-quoted works of ancient Stoicism. Forced by Nero to take his own life in AD 65, he is one of antiquity’s most cited (and most misquoted) moralists.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Letter 71 (“On the Supreme Good”), §3, trans. Richard M. Gummere, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. II (London: Heinemann; New York: Putnam, 1920).

MLA (9th ed.)

Seneca. “Letter 71.” Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, vol. 2, translated by Richard M. Gummere, Heinemann / Putnam, 1920.

APA (7th ed.)

Seneca. (1920). Ad Lucilium epistulae morales (Vol. 2) (R. M. Gummere, Trans.). Heinemann. (Original work composed c. AD 63–65)

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/when-a-man-does-not-know-what-harbour-he-is-making-for-no

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