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by
Seneca
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April 13, 2023 - December 8, 2024
‘Life, if courage to die be lacking, is slavery.’
The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
Everywhere means nowhere.
When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.
When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment.
Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul.
Some, for example, fearing to be deceived, have taught men to deceive; by their suspicions they have given their friend the right to do wrong.
It is equally faulty to trust everyone and to trust no one.
For love of bustle is not industry, – it is only the restlessness of a hunted mind.
Inwardly, we ought to be different in all respects, but our exterior should conform to society.
Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard;
It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches.
Just as the same chain fastens the prisoner and the soldier who guards him, so hope and fear, dissimilar as they are, keep step together; fear follows hope. 8I am not surprised that they proceed in this way; each alike belongs to a mind that is in suspense, a mind that is fretted by looking forward to the future. But the chief cause of both these ills is that we do not adapt ourselves to the present, but send our thoughts a long way ahead.
9Beasts avoid the dangers which they see, and when they have escaped them are free from care; but we men torment ourselves over that which is to come as well as over that which is past.
Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. And if wisdom were given me under the express condition that it must be kept hidden and not uttered, I should refuse it. No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.
Democritus[fn3] says: “One man means as much to me as a multitude, and a multitude only as much as one man.”
“Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them.”
you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler.
Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it.
no one is so old that it would be improper for him to hope for another day of existence.
let us say: I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me Is finished.[fn9]
When a man has said: “I have lived!”, every morning he arises he receives a bonus.
“It is wrong to live under constraint; but no man is constrained to live under constraint.”
“If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.”
9Natural desires are limited; but those which spring from false opinion can have no stopping-point. The false has no limits. When you are travelling on a road, there must be an end; but when astray, your wanderings are limitless. Recall your steps, therefore, from idle things, and when you would know whether that which you seek is based upon a natural or upon a misleading desire, consider whether it can stop at any definite point. If you find, after having travelled far, that there is a more distant goal always in view, you may be sure that this condition is contrary to nature.
4It shows much more courage to remain dry and sober when the mob is drunk and vomiting; but it shows greater self-control to refuse to withdraw oneself and to do what the crowd does, but in a different way, – thus neither making oneself conspicuous nor becoming one of the crowd.
Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: “Is this the condition that I feared?”
a man’s peace of mind does not depend upon Fortune; for, even when angry she grants enough for our needs.
Establish business relations with poverty.
He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it.
No man is able to borrow or buy a sound mind; in fact, as it seems to me, even though sound minds were for sale, they would not find buyers. Depraved minds, however, are bought and sold every day.
Are you surprised, as if it were a novelty, that after such long travel and so many changes of scene you have not been able to shake off the gloom and heaviness of your mind? You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
Lands and cities are left astern, your faults will follow you whithersoever you travel.
It helps little to have cast out your own faults if you must quarrel with those of others.
A single tree is not remarkable if the whole forest rises to the same height.
Only the poor man counts his flock.
Examine the separate parts, if you like, provided you examine them as parts of the man himself. She is not a beautiful woman whose ankle or arm is praised, but she whose general appearance makes you forget to admire her single attributes.
Thus said Zeno, thus said Cleanthes, indeed!” Let there be a difference between yourself and your book! How long shall you be a learner? From now on be a teacher as well!
11What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized.
No servitude is more disgraceful than that which is self-imposed.
10Alexander, when a certain state promised him a part of its territory and half its entire property, replied: “I invaded Asia with the intention, not of accepting what you might give, but of allowing you to keep what I might leave.”
8The place where one lives, however, can contribute little towards tranquillity; it is the mind which must make everything agreeable to itself.
so true it is that fear looks not to the effect, but to the cause of the effect.
It is this, that I shall not abandon old age, if old age preserves me intact for myself, and intact as regards the better part of myself; but if old age begins to shatter my mind, and to pull its various faculties to pieces, if it leaves me, not life, but only the breath of life, I shall rush out of a house that is crumbling and tottering. 36I shall not avoid illness by seeking death, as long as the illness is curable and does not impede my soul. I shall not lay violent hands upon myself just because I am in pain; for death under such circumstances is defeat. But if I find out that the pain
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And what is death? It is either the end, or a process of change. I have no fear of ceasing to exist; it is the same as not having begun. Nor do I shrink from changing into another state, because I shall, under no conditions, be as cramped as I am now.
4An expedition will be incomplete if one stops half-way, or anywhere on this side of one’s destination; but life is not incomplete if it is honourable. At whatever point you leave off living, provided you leave off nobly, your life is a whole.
“Do not torment yourself, my dear Marcellinus, as if the question which you are weighing were a matter of importance. It is not an important matter to live; all your slaves live, and so do all animals; but it is important to die honourably, sensibly, bravely. Reflect how long you have been doing the same thing: food, sleep, lust, – this is one’s daily round. The desire to die may be felt, not only by the sensible man or the brave or unhappy man, but even by the man who is merely surfeited.”
