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Letters from a Stoic
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No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.
Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.
Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism – teachings we can still learn from today.
No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.
Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.
Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism – teachings we can still learn from today.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 65
About the author
Seneca
2,326 books3,484 followersLucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger); ca. 4 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero, who later forced him to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to have him assassinated.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,365 reviews
April 11, 2017
These letters of Roman philosopher Seneca are a treasure chest for anybody wishing to incorporate philosophic wisdom into their day-to-day living. By way of example, below are a few Seneca gems along with my brief comments:
“Each day acquire something which will help you to face poverty, or death, and other ills as well. After running over a lot of different thoughts, pick out one to be digested throughout the day.” -------- I’m completely with Seneca on this point. I approach the study of philosophy primarily for self-transformation. There is no let-up in the various challenges life throws at us – what we can change is the level of wisdom we bring to facing our challenges.
“It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.” ---------- This is the perennial philosophy from Aristotle to Epicurus to Epictetus to Buddha: we have to face up to our predicament as humans; we are in the realm of desire. The goal of living as a philosopher is to deal with our desires in such a way that we can maintain our tranquility and joy.
“But if you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him (or her) as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of true friendship.” --------- Friendship was one key idea in the ancient world that modern philosophy seems to have forgotten. Seneca outlines how we must first test and judge people we consider as possible friends, but once we become friends with someone, then an abiding and complete trust is required.
“The very name of philosophy however modest the manner in which it is pursued, is unpopular enough as it is: imagine what the reaction would be if we started dissociating ourselves from the conventions of society. Inwardly everything should be different but our outward face should conform with the crowd. Our clothes should not be gaudy, yet they should now be dowdy either. . . . Let our aim be a way of life not diametrically opposed to, but better than that of the mob.”. ---------- The call of true philosophy isn’t an outward display but an internal attitude. There is a long, noble tradition of living the life of a philosopher going back to ancient Greece and Rome, that has, unfortunately, been mostly lost to us in the West. It is time to reclaim our true heritage.
“You may be banished to the end of the earth, and yet in whatever outlandish corner of the world you may find yourself stationed, you will find that place, whatever it may be like, a hospitable home. Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there." -------- This is the ultimate Stoic worldview: our strength of character is more important that the particular life situation we find ourselves in. Very applicable in our modern world; although, chances are we will not be banished to another country, many of us will one day be banished to a nursing home.
“This rapidity of utterance recalls a person running down a slope and unable to stop where he meant to, being carried on instead a lot farther than he intended, at the mercy of his body’s momentum; it is out of control, and unbecoming to philosophy, which should be placing her words, not throwing them around.” --------- The ancient world had many people who talked a mile a minute, an unending gush of chatter. The Greco-Roman philosophers such as Seneca and Plutarch warn against garrulousness. Rather, we should mark our words well. From my own experience, when I hear long-winded pontifications, I feel like running away.
“The next thing I knew the book itself had charmed me into a deeper reading of it there and then. . . . It was so enjoyable that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break. All the time the sunshine was inviting me out, hunger prompting me to eat, the weather threatening to break, but I gulped it all down in one sitting.” --------- Ah, the experience of being pulled into a good book! When we come upon such a book, go with it!
July 6, 2012
I tore this book to pieces. My copy is overflowing with tabbed pages and highlighted lines and notes in the margins. Seneca of course, is a fascinating figure. Gregory Hays once said about Marcus Aurelius that "not being a tyrant was something he had to work at one day at a time" and often, Seneca lost that battle. He was the Cardinal Richelieu behind Nero. He sat back and enjoyed the spoils of his student who had clearly lost his way--at least Aristotle didn't profit from Alexander's lust for power. However, there is some interesting evidence put forth in a paper titled - Seneca: The Case of the Opulent Stoic in which Lydia Motto presents that what we know of Seneca's reputation comes almost entirely from a single, less than objective source. And in fact, if we can trust the way in which Seneca faced his forced suicide there was not much difference between practice and philosophy.
The book is profoundly insightful, it calls you to action, and it has that 'quit your whining--this is life' attitude that so defines the Roman Stoics. This is by no means an all inclusive list but is Seneca on some important topics:
On doing more than consuming:
He should be delivering himself of such sayings, not memorizing them. It is disgraceful that a man who is old or in sight of old age should have wisdom deriving solely from his notebook. 'Zeno said this.' And what have you said? 'Cleanthes said that.' What have you said? How much longer are you going to serve under others? Assume authority over yourself and utter something that may be handed down to posterity. Produce something from your own resources.
On endurance:
Life's no soft affair. It's a long road you've started on: you can't but expect to have slips and knocks and falls, and get tired and openly wish--a lie--for death.
On freedom from perturbation:
Show me a man who isn't a slave; one who is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his 'little old woman', a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. And there is no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.
On quoting what you read:
There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with. I shall send you, accordingly, the actual books themselves, and to save you a lot of trouble hunting all over the place for passages likely to be of use to you, I shall mark the passages so that you can turn straight away to the words I approve and admire."
The book is profoundly insightful, it calls you to action, and it has that 'quit your whining--this is life' attitude that so defines the Roman Stoics. This is by no means an all inclusive list but is Seneca on some important topics:
On doing more than consuming:
He should be delivering himself of such sayings, not memorizing them. It is disgraceful that a man who is old or in sight of old age should have wisdom deriving solely from his notebook. 'Zeno said this.' And what have you said? 'Cleanthes said that.' What have you said? How much longer are you going to serve under others? Assume authority over yourself and utter something that may be handed down to posterity. Produce something from your own resources.
On endurance:
Life's no soft affair. It's a long road you've started on: you can't but expect to have slips and knocks and falls, and get tired and openly wish--a lie--for death.
On freedom from perturbation:
Show me a man who isn't a slave; one who is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his 'little old woman', a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. And there is no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.
On quoting what you read:
There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with. I shall send you, accordingly, the actual books themselves, and to save you a lot of trouble hunting all over the place for passages likely to be of use to you, I shall mark the passages so that you can turn straight away to the words I approve and admire."
November 3, 2024
Mai întîi despre traducere. Mi se pare excelentă. Gh. Guțu a fost un clasicist eminent de la care avem și un foarte util Dicționar latin-român. Cînd am citit prima dată un text de Seneca, s-a întîmplat să fie tocmai traducerea lui Gh. Guțu. Limba ei nu s-a învechit.
Trec la epistole. În a doua scrisoare, Seneca îl îndemna pe Lucilius (care nu era un tinerel, ci un funcționar imperial la vreo 50 de ani) să-și reprime tendința de a răsfoi multe cărți într-o singură zi. Asta este o agitație sterilă, spune pe drept cuvînt filosoful. Răsfoiești ca să uiți. Îl sfătuia, în schimb, să-și aleagă dintr-o carte (redactată neapărat de o autoritate, „citește mereu scriitorii consacrați!”) un singur pasaj, o sigură idee, și să-și folosească timpul rămas pentru a reflecta la acea idee. Desigur, e un îndemn de filosof pentru cei dispuși să filosofeze. Dar ni se potrivește și nouă, nefilosofilor. Cu vîrf și îndesat.
Am vrut să văd dacă Seneca respecta el însuși preceptul și m-am convins că nu înșira vorbe goale. Aproape toate scrisorile lui se încheie cu un citat comentat pe scurt. De pildă, citează din Epicur, hedonistul - nu trebuie confundat cu Epictet, stoicul: „O sărăcie voioasă este frumos lucru”. Și face adaos: „Dar dacă e voioasă, nici nu-i sărăcie, căci este sărac nu cine are puțin, ci cel care rîvnește la mai mult”.
Alte propoziții epistolare: „Sfătuiește-te cu natura” (scrisoarea 3).
„Așa face înțeleptul: se retrage în sine, trăiește cu sine” (9).
„Scutură-te, cercetează-te în toate felurile, observă-te! Filosofia nu stă în cuvinte, ci în fapte” (16).
„Învață să te bucuri! Crede-mă, adevărata bucurie este un lucru sever... Orice bucurie venită dinafară nu are temei” (22).
„Unii încep să trăiască, tocmai cînd ar trebui să termine [cînd sînt pe moarte]. Dacă socoți ciudat acest lucru, am să-ți spun ceva și mai ciudat: unii au încetat de a trăi înainte de a fi început” (scrisoarea 23).
Trec la epistole. În a doua scrisoare, Seneca îl îndemna pe Lucilius (care nu era un tinerel, ci un funcționar imperial la vreo 50 de ani) să-și reprime tendința de a răsfoi multe cărți într-o singură zi. Asta este o agitație sterilă, spune pe drept cuvînt filosoful. Răsfoiești ca să uiți. Îl sfătuia, în schimb, să-și aleagă dintr-o carte (redactată neapărat de o autoritate, „citește mereu scriitorii consacrați!”) un singur pasaj, o sigură idee, și să-și folosească timpul rămas pentru a reflecta la acea idee. Desigur, e un îndemn de filosof pentru cei dispuși să filosofeze. Dar ni se potrivește și nouă, nefilosofilor. Cu vîrf și îndesat.
Am vrut să văd dacă Seneca respecta el însuși preceptul și m-am convins că nu înșira vorbe goale. Aproape toate scrisorile lui se încheie cu un citat comentat pe scurt. De pildă, citează din Epicur, hedonistul - nu trebuie confundat cu Epictet, stoicul: „O sărăcie voioasă este frumos lucru”. Și face adaos: „Dar dacă e voioasă, nici nu-i sărăcie, căci este sărac nu cine are puțin, ci cel care rîvnește la mai mult”.
Alte propoziții epistolare: „Sfătuiește-te cu natura” (scrisoarea 3).
„Așa face înțeleptul: se retrage în sine, trăiește cu sine” (9).
„Scutură-te, cercetează-te în toate felurile, observă-te! Filosofia nu stă în cuvinte, ci în fapte” (16).
„Învață să te bucuri! Crede-mă, adevărata bucurie este un lucru sever... Orice bucurie venită dinafară nu are temei” (22).
„Unii încep să trăiască, tocmai cînd ar trebui să termine [cînd sînt pe moarte]. Dacă socoți ciudat acest lucru, am să-ți spun ceva și mai ciudat: unii au încetat de a trăi înainte de a fi început” (scrisoarea 23).
October 30, 2024
actual rating: 4.5 stars
June 15, 2016
Philosophy is good advice; and no one can give advice at the top of his lungs.
One of the most persistent criticisms made of modern philosophy is that it isn’t useful. The critics have a point. Modern philosophy largely concerns itself with a variety of theoretical problems. Even though many of these problems do have practical ramifications, many do not; and regardless, the debates can often get so technical, so heated, and so abstract, that it is difficult to see modern philosophy as the path to wisdom it once professed to be. People don’t have time or patience for logic-chopping; they want useful advice.
Those of this persuasion will be happy to find a forerunner and a sage in Seneca. As the opening quote shows, he conceived philosophy to be, above all, the giving of good advice. Seneca thus finds a perfect vehicle for his thought in the form of the letter. Although this book apparently consists of the private correspondence between Seneca and his friend Lucilius, it is obvious from the first page that these were expressly written for publication and posterity. This book should rather be thought of as a collection of moral essays and exhortations.
Even in translation, Seneca is a master stylist. He is by turns intimate, friendly, self-deprecating, nagging, mundane, and profound. He has an enormous talent for epigram; he can squeeze a lifetime into a line, compress a philosophy into a phrase. He is also remarkably modern in his tolerant, cosmopolitan, and informal attitude. Indeed I often found it difficult to believe that the book was written by a real Roman. Montaigne and Emerson obviously learned a great deal from Seneca; you might even say they ripped him off. The only thing that marks Seneca as ancient is his comparative lack of introspection. While Montaigne and Emerson are mercurial, wracked by self-doubt, driven by contrary tides of emotion, Seneca is calm, self-composed, confident.
Perhaps because of his professed aversion to abstract argument, Seneca is not a systematic thinker. Emerson wrote “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” and Seneca apparently would agree, for there are many inconsistencies to be found in these pages. Sometimes God is conceived of as an impersonal order of the universe, and at other times a personal deity; sometimes Lucilius is advised not to take the opinions of friends and family into account, other times to do so. Seneca’s metaphysical arguments are weak and confused affairs; he is not one for disputation. But for all this, there is a core of good sense contained within these pages, which Seneca himself summarizes:
No man is good by chance. Virtue is something which must be learned. Pleasure is low, petty, to be deemed worthless, shared even by dumb animals—the tiniest and meanest of whom fly towards pleasure. Glory is an empty and fleeting thing, lighter than air. Poverty is an evil to no man unless he kick’s against it. Death is not an evil; why need you ask? Death alone is the equal privilege of mankind.
Like Marcus Aurelius, a prominent statesman in troubled times, Seneca is very concerned with how to be happy in spite of circumstances. There is no satisfaction to be had through external goods, like fame and riches, because these cannot be gotten unless fortune is kind, and fortune is notoriously fickle. Even in good times, this can only lead you into an empty, meaningless competition, valuing yourself for something that isn’t really yours, causing you to ceaselessly measure yourself against others. You must rather become content with yourself, taking pleasure in life whether fortune smiles or frowns: “We have reached the heights if we know what it is that we find joy in and if we have not placed our happiness in externals.”
Of course, this is easier said than done, and Seneca does not have a fully worked-out system for reaching this state. He offers, instead, an unsystematic mass of advice. It is here that Seneca is most charming and helpful, for most other philosophers would not deign to offer such workaday recommendations and observations. Here is Seneca on negative thinking:
The mind at times fashions for itself false shapes of evil when there are no signs that point to evil; it twists into the worst construction some word of doubtful meaning; or it fancies some personal grudge to be more serious than it really is, considering not how angry the enemy is, but to what lengths he may go if he is angry.
It is in these sections, of plain, friendly advice, that I think Seneca is at his best. Certainly not all of his advice is good; every reader will pick and choose what suits them best. But much of Seneca's advice is timeless, and phrased in deathless prose. Most refreshing is Seneca’s insistence that his advice is for action and not reflection. This is more than slightly ironic, considering that Seneca is often accused of being a hypocrite whose lifestyle was far removed from his doctrines; but, to quote a modern philosopher, “There is no contradiction, or even paradox, in describing someone as bad at practising what he is good at preaching.” So preach on, Seneca.
June 1, 2024
Letters deserve a letter in reply, and therefore…
Dear Seneca: I wanted to thank you for your letters. They were published by a Londinium-based publisher called Penguin Books, under the title of Letters from a Stoic. I read your letters with interest and admiration, and wanted to drop a line by way of reply.
My time and place are very far from yours, but I know that you were one of the pre-eminent philosophers of imperial Rome. You were born in the province of Hispania, to a wealthy family. Your father, an important rhetorician, was also named Seneca, and it is for that reason that students of Roman history often refer to you as Seneca the Younger. Your life often was involved with the imperial politics of your time; the emperor Claudius exiled you to the island of Corsica, but then his successor Nero recalled you to Rome, where you served as Nero’s tutor. It must have been a truly Tartarean or hellish thing, trying to serve as tutor to a man as amoral as Nero – like trying to teach the principles of a noble life to Narcissus, while Narcissus stares endlessly at his reflection in the pool.
I say this in particular because you are so strongly identified with the school of philosophy known as Stoicism – a philosophical tradition that calls upon its practitioners to rise above the vicissitudes of fortune by living with dignity and restraint, no matter what happens. Many years after your time, a writer of Britannia, one William Shakespeare, included in his play Hamlet a description of one of his characters, a good man named Horatio, as “one in suffering all, who suffers nothing,/A man who Fortune’s buffets and rewards/Has ta’en with equal thanks.” I think Shakespeare must have read your work during his education; elsewhere in the same play, he has the leader of a company of actors describe the actors’ talent and versatility by saying that “Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor [the comedian] Plautus too light.” After all, you wrote tragic drama as well as philosophy.
But your philosophy is what is of interest to me today, for purposes of our correspondence. Your letters are addressed to one Lucilius the Younger, a governor of Sicily – and a man about whom we know virtually nothing, except that he was a friend and correspondent of yours. I hope you will not mind, therefore, that thousands of readers, from your time to mine, have read what were originally called the Epistulae Morales (Moral Epistles) as if you were writing to them personally.
As you write to Lucilius, I get the sense that you are trying to offer helpful ethical guidance to a younger man who is a person of real promise, and who simply needs a bit of moral tutelage. Perhaps, if Lucilius was boasting about being well-travelled, that might have prompted you to write that “To be everywhere is to be nowhere. People who spend their whole lives travelling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality, but no real friendships” (p. 26).
It occurs to me, in that connection, that you might have enjoyed reading the work of Lao Tzu, a philosopher of faraway Serica (a land that we call China). In his Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu writes that “Without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world;/Without looking out of the window, one can see the way of heaven. The further one goes, the less one knows.” Like you, Lao Tzu lived in a time of political discord, and wrote about cultivating a philosophy of patience and endurance. I think that you and he would have had a lot to talk about.
It might help if I were to tell you a bit about my own country. In your language, my country would be called Civitates Foederatae Americae. My country, which is located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, is a federal republic, set up partly along the Roman model. The Latin term rei publicae (“public affairs”) inspired the constitution and laws of my country’s government, and public architecture like that of my country’s Supreme Court building might have, for you, quite a Roman look.
In my country, as in yours, wealth is sought-after and envied; I know that you faced hostility from many who envied your wealth, even though wealth was not the thing that was most important to you. It spoke to me, therefore, when you wrote to Lucilius that
It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more. What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man’s safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another’s and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already? You ask, what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough. (p. 33)
In a similar vein, you also wrote that “There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with” (p. 39). While your wealth enabled you to live well, you seem to have realized that living well is not synonymous with having a lot of money. I wish more people in my country realized that.
I also liked your focus on the practical. You reminded me of one of my country’s most famous philosophers, Benjamin Franklin, when you wrote that “Inwardly, everything should be different, but our outward face should conform with the crowd” (p. 36). People in my country sometimes tend to exhibit a very overt, in-your-face form of individualism; your experience of imperial Roman life, and death, may have taught you that an inwardly focused form of individualism is the safest thing. Franklin believed that, too. And you showed a Franklinian fondness for the pithy, memorably phrased tidbit of advice when you recommended that Lucilius “Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one: men learn as they teach” (p. 42).
Your letters, in accordance with your Stoic philosophy, emphasize control over the emotions, as when you state that “Fear keeps pace with hope. Nor does their so moving together surprise me; both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present” (p. 38).
I also appreciated the ethos of fair-mindedness that you established throughout the Epistulae Morales. It was no surprise when you quoted fellow Stoics like Hecato: “Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope,’ [Hecato] says, ‘and you will cease to fear’” (p. 38). But knowing, as I do, that the Stoics were rivals to the Epicurians, I was impressed at how often you cited Epicurus. This edition of your letters offers commentary by Robin Campbell, a native of Caledonia who teaches at a university in Britannia. Campbell says of Epicurus that “his letters, and will, reveal a warm, attractive personality” (p. 247), and perhaps you felt the same way about your supposed rival, whom you cited with approval at several points in the Letters.
At one point, you quoted Epicurus, speaking after the manner of Stilbo: “‘Any man,’ [Epicurus] says, ‘who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world’” (p. 53). At another point, you quoted Epicurus in a comparably laudatory spirit, rival or no rival: “Here is another saying of Epicurus: ‘If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich’” (p. 64). You seemed more interested in pursuing the truth than in proving that your school of philosophy was somehow smarter or better than someone else’s. I appreciated that.
Like all of us, you tried to use life experience as something educative, and sought to take quotidian events and examine their possible larger significance. It was interesting, for instance, that seasickness on an ocean voyage got you thinking about the distinction between physical and spiritual affliction; physical weaknesses, you wrote, “are continually bringing themselves to our notice”, while “With afflictions of the spirit…the opposite is the case: the worse a person is, the less he feels it” (p. 101).
I live in a civitas called Virginia, and teach at a university named for George Mason, one of my country’s founding leaders. Because I teach courses in literature and rhetoric, I was struck by how, in Letter LXXXVIII, you responded to Lucilius’ questions about the value of liberal studies by saying that “there is only one liberal study that deserves the name – because it makes a person free – and that is the pursuit of wisdom. Its high ideals, its steadfastness and spirit, make all other studies puerile and puny in comparison” (p. 151). What a full-throated defense and vindication of philosophy that is!
By contrast, you don’t seem to think much of other branches of liberal studies, asking with some asperity, “Do you really think there is anything to be said for the others, when you find among the people who profess to teach them quite the most reprehensible and worthless characters you could have as teachers? Alright to have studied that sort of thing once, but not to be studying them now” (p. 151).
Now, Seneca -- Vero? Vero? (Really? Really?) Surely other branches of the liberal arts can also help people to be better people and live better lives. I wish you could have lived to read Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, for example. Plutarch believed firmly that biography – the history of how an important person’s life choices had important consequences, whether good or bad, for that person and for their society – could teach the reader to try to make better choices in their own life. If you could have read Plutarch, perhaps you would feel the same way.
While I disagreed with you from time to time – and really, what would philosophy be if reasoning people could not disagree now and then? – I found the arguments of the Epistulae Morales consistently interesting and compelling. I liked how you suggested to Lucilius that the pursuit of wisdom must itself be approached in a spirit of moderation:
This enthusiasm for learning, with which I can see you’re on fire, is to be brought under control if it isn’t going to stand in its own way. What is wanted is neither haphazard dipping nor a greedy onslaught on knowledge in the mass. The whole will be reached through its parts, and the burden must be adjusted to our strength. We mustn’t take on more than we can manage. You shouldn’t attempt to absorb all you want to – just what you’ve room for; simply adopt the right approach and you will end up with room for all you want. The more the mind takes in, the more it expands. (p. 200).
You dedicated your life to such principles, and died in accordance with them. Translator and commentator Campbell thoughtfully includes an appendix in which a later Roman writer, a historian named Tacitus, describes what happened when Nero ordered you to commit suicide. Tacitus emphasizes your courage and self-possession in the face of Nero’s cruelty and injustice:
As he talked…he checked their tears and sought to revive their courage. Where had their philosophy gone, he asked, and that resolution against impending misfortunes which they had devised over so many years? ‘Surely nobody was unaware that Nero was cruel!’ he added. ‘After murdering his mother and brother, it only remained for him to kill his teacher and tutor.’ (p. 243)
I read your letters while travelling in your Spanish homeland, and was deeply impressed by what I read. I liked the intellectual rigour of your work. I also liked your emphasis on the idea that philosophy should not be simply a matter of intellectual gymnastics, but rather should have the goal of helping its student to become a better person. Indeed, I would have to say that you are now my favorite Roman writer.
And therefore, great Seneca of Rome, it is on that note that Paul of Manassas thanks you, bids you farewell, and wishes you all the happiness that the Elysian Fields may offer.
With best regards,
Paul Haspel
Dear Seneca: I wanted to thank you for your letters. They were published by a Londinium-based publisher called Penguin Books, under the title of Letters from a Stoic. I read your letters with interest and admiration, and wanted to drop a line by way of reply.
My time and place are very far from yours, but I know that you were one of the pre-eminent philosophers of imperial Rome. You were born in the province of Hispania, to a wealthy family. Your father, an important rhetorician, was also named Seneca, and it is for that reason that students of Roman history often refer to you as Seneca the Younger. Your life often was involved with the imperial politics of your time; the emperor Claudius exiled you to the island of Corsica, but then his successor Nero recalled you to Rome, where you served as Nero’s tutor. It must have been a truly Tartarean or hellish thing, trying to serve as tutor to a man as amoral as Nero – like trying to teach the principles of a noble life to Narcissus, while Narcissus stares endlessly at his reflection in the pool.
I say this in particular because you are so strongly identified with the school of philosophy known as Stoicism – a philosophical tradition that calls upon its practitioners to rise above the vicissitudes of fortune by living with dignity and restraint, no matter what happens. Many years after your time, a writer of Britannia, one William Shakespeare, included in his play Hamlet a description of one of his characters, a good man named Horatio, as “one in suffering all, who suffers nothing,/A man who Fortune’s buffets and rewards/Has ta’en with equal thanks.” I think Shakespeare must have read your work during his education; elsewhere in the same play, he has the leader of a company of actors describe the actors’ talent and versatility by saying that “Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor [the comedian] Plautus too light.” After all, you wrote tragic drama as well as philosophy.
But your philosophy is what is of interest to me today, for purposes of our correspondence. Your letters are addressed to one Lucilius the Younger, a governor of Sicily – and a man about whom we know virtually nothing, except that he was a friend and correspondent of yours. I hope you will not mind, therefore, that thousands of readers, from your time to mine, have read what were originally called the Epistulae Morales (Moral Epistles) as if you were writing to them personally.
As you write to Lucilius, I get the sense that you are trying to offer helpful ethical guidance to a younger man who is a person of real promise, and who simply needs a bit of moral tutelage. Perhaps, if Lucilius was boasting about being well-travelled, that might have prompted you to write that “To be everywhere is to be nowhere. People who spend their whole lives travelling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality, but no real friendships” (p. 26).
It occurs to me, in that connection, that you might have enjoyed reading the work of Lao Tzu, a philosopher of faraway Serica (a land that we call China). In his Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu writes that “Without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world;/Without looking out of the window, one can see the way of heaven. The further one goes, the less one knows.” Like you, Lao Tzu lived in a time of political discord, and wrote about cultivating a philosophy of patience and endurance. I think that you and he would have had a lot to talk about.
It might help if I were to tell you a bit about my own country. In your language, my country would be called Civitates Foederatae Americae. My country, which is located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, is a federal republic, set up partly along the Roman model. The Latin term rei publicae (“public affairs”) inspired the constitution and laws of my country’s government, and public architecture like that of my country’s Supreme Court building might have, for you, quite a Roman look.
In my country, as in yours, wealth is sought-after and envied; I know that you faced hostility from many who envied your wealth, even though wealth was not the thing that was most important to you. It spoke to me, therefore, when you wrote to Lucilius that
It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more. What difference does it make how much there is laid away in a man’s safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another’s and only counts what he has yet to get, never what he has already? You ask, what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough. (p. 33)
In a similar vein, you also wrote that “There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with” (p. 39). While your wealth enabled you to live well, you seem to have realized that living well is not synonymous with having a lot of money. I wish more people in my country realized that.
I also liked your focus on the practical. You reminded me of one of my country’s most famous philosophers, Benjamin Franklin, when you wrote that “Inwardly, everything should be different, but our outward face should conform with the crowd” (p. 36). People in my country sometimes tend to exhibit a very overt, in-your-face form of individualism; your experience of imperial Roman life, and death, may have taught you that an inwardly focused form of individualism is the safest thing. Franklin believed that, too. And you showed a Franklinian fondness for the pithy, memorably phrased tidbit of advice when you recommended that Lucilius “Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those whom you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one: men learn as they teach” (p. 42).
Your letters, in accordance with your Stoic philosophy, emphasize control over the emotions, as when you state that “Fear keeps pace with hope. Nor does their so moving together surprise me; both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present” (p. 38).
I also appreciated the ethos of fair-mindedness that you established throughout the Epistulae Morales. It was no surprise when you quoted fellow Stoics like Hecato: “Limiting one’s desires actually helps to cure one of fear. ‘Cease to hope,’ [Hecato] says, ‘and you will cease to fear’” (p. 38). But knowing, as I do, that the Stoics were rivals to the Epicurians, I was impressed at how often you cited Epicurus. This edition of your letters offers commentary by Robin Campbell, a native of Caledonia who teaches at a university in Britannia. Campbell says of Epicurus that “his letters, and will, reveal a warm, attractive personality” (p. 247), and perhaps you felt the same way about your supposed rival, whom you cited with approval at several points in the Letters.
At one point, you quoted Epicurus, speaking after the manner of Stilbo: “‘Any man,’ [Epicurus] says, ‘who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world’” (p. 53). At another point, you quoted Epicurus in a comparably laudatory spirit, rival or no rival: “Here is another saying of Epicurus: ‘If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich’” (p. 64). You seemed more interested in pursuing the truth than in proving that your school of philosophy was somehow smarter or better than someone else’s. I appreciated that.
Like all of us, you tried to use life experience as something educative, and sought to take quotidian events and examine their possible larger significance. It was interesting, for instance, that seasickness on an ocean voyage got you thinking about the distinction between physical and spiritual affliction; physical weaknesses, you wrote, “are continually bringing themselves to our notice”, while “With afflictions of the spirit…the opposite is the case: the worse a person is, the less he feels it” (p. 101).
I live in a civitas called Virginia, and teach at a university named for George Mason, one of my country’s founding leaders. Because I teach courses in literature and rhetoric, I was struck by how, in Letter LXXXVIII, you responded to Lucilius’ questions about the value of liberal studies by saying that “there is only one liberal study that deserves the name – because it makes a person free – and that is the pursuit of wisdom. Its high ideals, its steadfastness and spirit, make all other studies puerile and puny in comparison” (p. 151). What a full-throated defense and vindication of philosophy that is!
By contrast, you don’t seem to think much of other branches of liberal studies, asking with some asperity, “Do you really think there is anything to be said for the others, when you find among the people who profess to teach them quite the most reprehensible and worthless characters you could have as teachers? Alright to have studied that sort of thing once, but not to be studying them now” (p. 151).
Now, Seneca -- Vero? Vero? (Really? Really?) Surely other branches of the liberal arts can also help people to be better people and live better lives. I wish you could have lived to read Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, for example. Plutarch believed firmly that biography – the history of how an important person’s life choices had important consequences, whether good or bad, for that person and for their society – could teach the reader to try to make better choices in their own life. If you could have read Plutarch, perhaps you would feel the same way.
While I disagreed with you from time to time – and really, what would philosophy be if reasoning people could not disagree now and then? – I found the arguments of the Epistulae Morales consistently interesting and compelling. I liked how you suggested to Lucilius that the pursuit of wisdom must itself be approached in a spirit of moderation:
This enthusiasm for learning, with which I can see you’re on fire, is to be brought under control if it isn’t going to stand in its own way. What is wanted is neither haphazard dipping nor a greedy onslaught on knowledge in the mass. The whole will be reached through its parts, and the burden must be adjusted to our strength. We mustn’t take on more than we can manage. You shouldn’t attempt to absorb all you want to – just what you’ve room for; simply adopt the right approach and you will end up with room for all you want. The more the mind takes in, the more it expands. (p. 200).
You dedicated your life to such principles, and died in accordance with them. Translator and commentator Campbell thoughtfully includes an appendix in which a later Roman writer, a historian named Tacitus, describes what happened when Nero ordered you to commit suicide. Tacitus emphasizes your courage and self-possession in the face of Nero’s cruelty and injustice:
As he talked…he checked their tears and sought to revive their courage. Where had their philosophy gone, he asked, and that resolution against impending misfortunes which they had devised over so many years? ‘Surely nobody was unaware that Nero was cruel!’ he added. ‘After murdering his mother and brother, it only remained for him to kill his teacher and tutor.’ (p. 243)
I read your letters while travelling in your Spanish homeland, and was deeply impressed by what I read. I liked the intellectual rigour of your work. I also liked your emphasis on the idea that philosophy should not be simply a matter of intellectual gymnastics, but rather should have the goal of helping its student to become a better person. Indeed, I would have to say that you are now my favorite Roman writer.
And therefore, great Seneca of Rome, it is on that note that Paul of Manassas thanks you, bids you farewell, and wishes you all the happiness that the Elysian Fields may offer.
With best regards,
Paul Haspel
December 21, 2021
Starost umjesto uživanja nudi ono osjećanje da nam ona više nisu potrebna.
Seneka je jedan od onih filozofa, predstavnika stoicizma, koji je smatrao da filozofija treba, a i mora da ima praktičnu vrijednost na pojedinca koji se njome koristi. Seneka se prije svega bavio moralnom filozofijom i na njoj gradio stepenice o disciplini života. Na tom putu gradnje koristio je opservacije o slobodi i ropstvu, bogatstvu i siromaštvu, pravdi i ne pravdi, zdravlju i bolesti, mladosti i starosti, sreći i nesreći itd. Filozofiju je posmatrao kao utočište u kome se pokoravamo bogu, sokoleći se i preuzimajući sav teret koji sudbina kači na naša leđa. Seneka je kormilar broda koji usred oluje krči puteve kroz talase i podvodne stijene. Pisma koja upućuje Luciliju jesu savjeti kako mirno podnositi tu oluju i druge bezbrojne stvari koje se svakog časa događaju. Seneka ne žuri sa tim brodom, kadšto on stane, predahne, napoji se, pa nastavlja. Veličao je nemaštinu i siromaštvo, čast, hrabrost i mudrost, boga i pravdu, ravnodušnost, jer to dolazi iznutra. Svako pretijerivanje i neumjerenost u nečemu gledao je kao glupost, a ovo kao nešto nisko i prljavo.
Izvlačio je silogizme koji su duboki i izgledaju ozbiljno poput dijeteta koje se igra u pijesku. Na primjer, dobro je vrlina, a zlo je porok; ako činimo porok onda idemo ka zlu, a ako se bavimo vrlinom činimo dobro. Kao i Platon, Seneka je takođe zazirao od tijela. Njegovi smo robovi putem želja i strahova, i ako na to robovanje pristanemo dobrovoljno, onda je to nešto sramno. S obzirom da je veličao ono što je dobro, tako je po uzoru na Platona veličao i dušu. Smatrao je da nju imamo kako bi uvijek bili u sprezi sa onim što je božansko.
Senekina retorika je blaga i mirna, sažeta u svojoj mogućnosti, oslanja se na prirodu, na činjenice iz nje. Interpretacija tih činjenica vodi brigu o čovjeku i njegovoj prirodi. Suštinska nit koja se provlači kroz knjigu jeste razlikovanje dobra i zla. U najveća dobra Seneka stavlja: mir, dobrobit otadžbine, izdržljivost prilikom mučenja ili mirnoća u teškoj bolesti i drugo. Sve ono nečasno smatra zlim.
September 19, 2018
Някой си автор се бил възмутил, че всяко изречение на Сенека е сентенция и ако тръгнеш да си ги подчертаваш, трябва да одраскаш всичко, пише в предисловието. Така е. Сенека е критикуван и дори осмиван за това, че на практика значително се отклонява от проповядваните правила на скромно съществуване и живее в охолство. Друг автор пък може би с право възкликва, че трябва да си особено невеж относно човешката природа, за да си мислиш, че е невъзможно някой да има добри принципи, но да не ги практикува особено праволинейно. Честно казано, аз винаги съм вярвала именно в обратното и всичко друго ми е намирисвало на лицемерие, но с годините и понатрупването на някакъв опит човек започва бавничко да се ориентира към истината. Или поне към някаква истина.
Не се чувствам достатъчно умна или разбрала всичко, за да пиша рецензия на Сенека. Ще го препрочитам и преосмислям. Някога може и да опитам профанното си перо и да събера по-конкретни впечатления. Все пак е нелошо да си осведомен, че хората в сърцевината си остават същите, както и преди векове, със същите заблуди, търсения, мисли и стремежи. Дали ще си с тога или ще си разцъкваш из интернет, фарът, който свети в далечината на познанието, не се е изменил особено. Той си е. Някога, след още векове, още философи и мъдрост, може и да го достигнем. Дотогава не трябва да спираме да вярваме в миража. И да четем стойностни книги.
Не се чувствам достатъчно умна или разбрала всичко, за да пиша рецензия на Сенека. Ще го препрочитам и преосмислям. Някога може и да опитам профанното си перо и да събера по-конкретни впечатления. Все пак е нелошо да си осведомен, че хората в сърцевината си остават същите, както и преди векове, със същите заблуди, търсения, мисли и стремежи. Дали ще си с тога или ще си разцъкваш из интернет, фарът, който свети в далечината на познанието, не се е изменил особено. Той си е. Някога, след още векове, още философи и мъдрост, може и да го достигнем. Дотогава не трябва да спираме да вярваме в миража. И да четем стойностни книги.
April 10, 2022
“The mind, once healed, is healed for good and all”
A gulp of philosophy is always wholesome and pleasant, so I greet her (madam philosophy) with a loving kind embrace, even if merely during my spare time or at other odd times. In fact, I sense its care is chiefly for the mind, thus it should or ought to make a beginning into it, or rather to say that it is the mind which must make everything agreeable to itself.
Through her act (by the by, as it’s obvious already, I rather see philosophy as a ‘she’) of a medicine which is not bitter, it also gives pleasure by restoring my mind to a sound, healthy track, though sadly a short-lived one too. She seems worthy of me, thus in silence and with reverent awe I submit to the cure… And it's a great truth eventually in saying that philosophy ought to be worshipped in silence.
What a wonderful privilege to have read these courageous, though very short sized, letters. All those witty stories the ancient Seneca shared in his tiny powerful letters furnished me with some food for thought and I felt, or rather say I was smitten with certain mental thrills and, additionally, I have experienced a sort of transformation, due to the novelty they provided. Not only I take great delight in such texts, but during my read I never ceased to rest secure in cheerful and brave thoughts. Ha.
It is not only the great maxims and sayings of Epicurus that he is using extensively as a signature upon his letters. It’s especially his style of ‘talking’ that gives a great and bountiful share of emotions.
I feel a strong, deeply instilled impression that I will continue to enjoy, time and again, this sort of continued “gulps” of philosophy, and Seneca, even for a refreshment, is always a very welcomed choice for a beginner in this area like myself. In fact, I will begin to muse and think intermittently, somehow like first and foremost, how much of a Stoic he was himself…
“[…] And I ask you, would you not say that one was the greatest of fools who believed that a lamp was worse off when it was extinguished than before it was lighted? We mortals also are lighted and extinguished; the period of suffering comes in between, but on either side there is a deep peace. For, unless I am very much mistaken, my dear Lucilius, we go astray in thinking that death only follows, when in reality it has both preceded us and will in turn follow us. Whatever condition existed before our birth, is death. For what does it matter whether you do not begin at all, or whether you leave off, inasmuch as the result of both these states is non-existence?”
A gulp of philosophy is always wholesome and pleasant, so I greet her (madam philosophy) with a loving kind embrace, even if merely during my spare time or at other odd times. In fact, I sense its care is chiefly for the mind, thus it should or ought to make a beginning into it, or rather to say that it is the mind which must make everything agreeable to itself.
Through her act (by the by, as it’s obvious already, I rather see philosophy as a ‘she’) of a medicine which is not bitter, it also gives pleasure by restoring my mind to a sound, healthy track, though sadly a short-lived one too. She seems worthy of me, thus in silence and with reverent awe I submit to the cure… And it's a great truth eventually in saying that philosophy ought to be worshipped in silence.
What a wonderful privilege to have read these courageous, though very short sized, letters. All those witty stories the ancient Seneca shared in his tiny powerful letters furnished me with some food for thought and I felt, or rather say I was smitten with certain mental thrills and, additionally, I have experienced a sort of transformation, due to the novelty they provided. Not only I take great delight in such texts, but during my read I never ceased to rest secure in cheerful and brave thoughts. Ha.
It is not only the great maxims and sayings of Epicurus that he is using extensively as a signature upon his letters. It’s especially his style of ‘talking’ that gives a great and bountiful share of emotions.
I feel a strong, deeply instilled impression that I will continue to enjoy, time and again, this sort of continued “gulps” of philosophy, and Seneca, even for a refreshment, is always a very welcomed choice for a beginner in this area like myself. In fact, I will begin to muse and think intermittently, somehow like first and foremost, how much of a Stoic he was himself…
“[…] And I ask you, would you not say that one was the greatest of fools who believed that a lamp was worse off when it was extinguished than before it was lighted? We mortals also are lighted and extinguished; the period of suffering comes in between, but on either side there is a deep peace. For, unless I am very much mistaken, my dear Lucilius, we go astray in thinking that death only follows, when in reality it has both preceded us and will in turn follow us. Whatever condition existed before our birth, is death. For what does it matter whether you do not begin at all, or whether you leave off, inasmuch as the result of both these states is non-existence?”
June 7, 2022
Сенека наистина може да се чете без ограничение във времето. На малки дози концентрат от размишления, афоризми и тъга.
Завещанието на стоиците лично на мен ми звучи много близко и приземено. И човечно. Умереност във всичко и неизменна здрава логика като подход определено са нужни вина��и. Както става ясно и от наследството на Сенека и Марк Аврелий, те са трудно постижими във всички епохи. Твърде много източници за разсейване на вниманието и разпиляването му в тривиални, безсмислени и краткосрочни усилия съществуват в битието на всеки, както и отраженията им в душата - това, което от стари времена наричаме “страсти”.
Сенека е безкрайно обигран оратор и писател, всяко изречение е шедьовър. Писал е наистина за след 2000 години. Полирал е мисълта си до бижутерско съвършенство.
Но все пак няколко грапавини, неизбежни и придаващи още по-голяма автентичност и конкретна физиономия на неговия стоицизъм, пронизват гладката на пръв поглед повърхност:
🏛 Стоицизмът според Сенека, при условие, че самият той е бил един от най-богатите римляни, изглежда на моменти като предложено решение единствено за презадоволените членове на обществото, затънали твърде надълбоко в теченията му (политика, управление, бизнес). Поднасянето на твърде идеализирани на моменти примери от живота на по-бедните на моменти звучи силно лицемерно, нещо като да рекламираш живота на гладуващите като перфектната диета за сваляне на излишните тлъстини.
🏛 Тази вечна подготовка за смъртта сякаш на моменти изключва всяка радост от живота. Да, трябва да помним, че сме смъртни (memento mori!), но Сенека явно е предчувствал собствения си нелек край, и методично и психотерапевтично се е подготвял за приемането му. Дали ако сам не се беше месил толкова в имперските интриги и беше следвал собствените си съвети, нямаше все пак да я избегне (самоубийство по заповед на императора)?
🏛 Робите. Сърцевината на целия му светоглед се пропуква в моментите, когато Сенека с неистови усилия се опитва да пригоди доста човеколюбивия стоицизъм към едрото робовладелство в Рим. Един вид - не бийте домашните си любимци, и да, всички сме хора, и те са хора, но са и роби, и не са чак толкова много хора колкото собствениците си…
Мислех да измъкна цитати, но това значи да копирам цялата книга. Трябва да се упражня в умереност, а това във великолепието на думите на Сенека не е лесна задача.
Завещанието на стоиците лично на мен ми звучи много близко и приземено. И човечно. Умереност във всичко и неизменна здрава логика като подход определено са нужни вина��и. Както става ясно и от наследството на Сенека и Марк Аврелий, те са трудно постижими във всички епохи. Твърде много източници за разсейване на вниманието и разпиляването му в тривиални, безсмислени и краткосрочни усилия съществуват в битието на всеки, както и отраженията им в душата - това, което от стари времена наричаме “страсти”.
Сенека е безкрайно обигран оратор и писател, всяко изречение е шедьовър. Писал е наистина за след 2000 години. Полирал е мисълта си до бижутерско съвършенство.
Но все пак няколко грапавини, неизбежни и придаващи още по-голяма автентичност и конкретна физиономия на неговия стоицизъм, пронизват гладката на пръв поглед повърхност:
🏛 Стоицизмът според Сенека, при условие, че самият той е бил един от най-богатите римляни, изглежда на моменти като предложено решение единствено за презадоволените членове на обществото, затънали твърде надълбоко в теченията му (политика, управление, бизнес). Поднасянето на твърде идеализирани на моменти примери от живота на по-бедните на моменти звучи силно лицемерно, нещо като да рекламираш живота на гладуващите като перфектната диета за сваляне на излишните тлъстини.
🏛 Тази вечна подготовка за смъртта сякаш на моменти изключва всяка радост от живота. Да, трябва да помним, че сме смъртни (memento mori!), но Сенека явно е предчувствал собствения си нелек край, и методично и психотерапевтично се е подготвял за приемането му. Дали ако сам не се беше месил толкова в имперските интриги и беше следвал собствените си съвети, нямаше все пак да я избегне (самоубийство по заповед на императора)?
🏛 Робите. Сърцевината на целия му светоглед се пропуква в моментите, когато Сенека с неистови усилия се опитва да пригоди доста човеколюбивия стоицизъм към едрото робовладелство в Рим. Един вид - не бийте домашните си любимци, и да, всички сме хора, и те са хора, но са и роби, и не са чак толкова много хора колкото собствениците си…
Мислех да измъкна цитати, но това значи да копирам цялата книга. Трябва да се упражня в умереност, а това във великолепието на думите на Сенека не е лесна задача.
June 9, 2023
"Нравственные письма к Луцилию" представляет собой свод этических представлений стоицизма, изложенных в односторонней эпистолярной форме без ответов адресата. Составленные в форме наставлений по самому широкому спектру вопросов - от дружбы, здоровья, старости, смерти, до любви к философии, важности знаний, божественной природы души человека.
Несмотря на морализаторский стиль, многие наставления очень точны в наблюдении.
"С кем мы сошлись ради пользы, мил нам, лишь покуда полезен. Вот почему вокруг того, чьи дела процветают, – толпа друзей, а вокруг потерпевших крушение – пустыня. Друзья бегут оттуда, где испытывается дружба. Вот почему видим мы так много постыдных примеров, когда одни из страха бросают друзей, другие из страха предают их. Каково начало, таков конец, иначе и быть не может. Кто подружился ради выгоды, тому будет дорога награда за измену дружбе, коль скоро и в ней было дорого ему что-нибудь, кроме нее самой. Для чего приобретаю я друга? Чтобы было за кого умереть, за кем пойти в изгнанье, за чью жизнь бороться и отдать жизнь. А дружба, о которой ты пишешь, та, что заключается ради корысти и смотрит, что можно выгадать, – это не дружба, а сделка. "
Есть ли дружба, чтобы было за кого умереть или пойти в изгнание - вопрос спорный, но насчёт того, что вокруг успешных толпа ищущих их дружбы, которые мгновенно испаряются, когда успешный некогда человек перестал быть таковым - чистая правда, как и то, что дружба из корысти - это сделка.
В вопросах предопределённости Сенека приближается к христианству, позиция стоиков к самоубийству не может быть оправданной, а любовь к знаниям и философии находит отклик в душе. Книга дискуссионна, но именно генерируюшая способность к раздумьям и рождает любовь к мудрости - философию.
Данная рецензия не является академической, а лишь общие впечатления читателя, не являющего философом.
Несмотря на морализаторский стиль, многие наставления очень точны в наблюдении.
"С кем мы сошлись ради пользы, мил нам, лишь покуда полезен. Вот почему вокруг того, чьи дела процветают, – толпа друзей, а вокруг потерпевших крушение – пустыня. Друзья бегут оттуда, где испытывается дружба. Вот почему видим мы так много постыдных примеров, когда одни из страха бросают друзей, другие из страха предают их. Каково начало, таков конец, иначе и быть не может. Кто подружился ради выгоды, тому будет дорога награда за измену дружбе, коль скоро и в ней было дорого ему что-нибудь, кроме нее самой. Для чего приобретаю я друга? Чтобы было за кого умереть, за кем пойти в изгнанье, за чью жизнь бороться и отдать жизнь. А дружба, о которой ты пишешь, та, что заключается ради корысти и смотрит, что можно выгадать, – это не дружба, а сделка. "
Есть ли дружба, чтобы было за кого умереть или пойти в изгнание - вопрос спорный, но насчёт того, что вокруг успешных толпа ищущих их дружбы, которые мгновенно испаряются, когда успешный некогда человек перестал быть таковым - чистая правда, как и то, что дружба из корысти - это сделка.
В вопросах предопределённости Сенека приближается к христианству, позиция стоиков к самоубийству не может быть оправданной, а любовь к знаниям и философии находит отклик в душе. Книга дискуссионна, но именно генерируюшая способность к раздумьям и рождает любовь к мудрости - философию.
Данная рецензия не является академической, а лишь общие впечатления читателя, не являющего философом.
September 13, 2012
Along with his tragedies, treatises and longer dialogues, the philosopher Seneca wrote 124 letters addressed to his friend Lucilius. Whether these letters were actually sent is unknown, but their style indicates that they were intended for publication at some point. These letters are really mini-essays in disguise, discussing Seneca’s Stoic beliefs and his outlook on life in general. This collection contains about a third of Seneca’s surviving letters, some of which are abridged.
For readers interested in Stoicism and Roman philosophy generally, I think these letters do just as good a job (if not better) of expressing Seneca’s beliefs as his dialogues do, and are more pleasant reading to boot. Stoicism (which had been around much longer than Seneca) held that men should live ‘in accordance with nature,’ learning to live in conformity with the world as it is and accepting whatever fate should bring their way. People should value and cultivate reason, and discipline the pleasures and the passions. Only in this way can true happiness be achieved. The duties Stoicism glorified – courage, self-control, simple habits, rationality and obedience to the State – corresponded closely to traditional Roman values, and Stoicism was the most influential philosophy in the Roman world for a long time. To some degree, it contrasted with Epicurean thought, which placed more value on the pursuit of individual pleasure. But in his letters Seneca displayed a remarkably open mind regarding Epicurus and his disciples, and the two schools of thought were not entirely at odds.
Many of the values Stoicism promoted were universal ones with wide appeal. Also, although the Stoics believed in a supreme providence that governed the universe, they were not particularly concerned with how this force was labeled: nature, divine reason, god, destiny, etc. This flexibility helped Stoicism adapt and fit within all kids of belief systems. Interestingly, the early Christian Church (which was very disfavorably disposed to most pagan writings) viewed Seneca as ‘one of them’ for this reason. This popularity was to continue into medieval times – in the Inferno Dante placed Seneca in Limbo, the highest place a non-Christian could aspire to, and Queen Elizabeth I “did much admire Senca’s wholesome advisings.”
However, Seneca has had his critics too over the centuries. He preached simple living and a rejection of luxury in his writings, but Seneca was one of the most powerful men in Rome and one of the wealthiest in the Western world during his lifetime. He was Emperor Nero’s chief advisor, and ‘the real master of the world’ for a while according to one modern writer. As chief imperial advisor, he almost certainly assisted Nero in the murder of the emperor’s own mother. Wealth and virtue are certainly not mutually exclusive, but extravagent wealth, advising a tyrant and being an accessory to murder do not scream good Stoic living. Whether Seneca lacked the courage of his own convictions, or was unable to practice what he preached, is at least in doubt. Also, Seneca is rarely (if ever) praised as a groundbreaking philosophical thinker. He did not invent Stoicism, but instead “spiritualized and humanized it” in his writings. Readers expecting Plato or Aristotle will probably be disappointed.
But readers interested in learning about Stoicism in general will be well served by this book. As I said earlier, I thought these letters were on the whole better than Seneca’s longer dialogues (which are not really ‘dialogues’ at all in any traditional sense, with one exception). As an introduction to Stoic philosophy, which was an important school of thought in the Greco-Roman world and beyond, you could do a lot worse. 3.5 stars.
For readers interested in Stoicism and Roman philosophy generally, I think these letters do just as good a job (if not better) of expressing Seneca’s beliefs as his dialogues do, and are more pleasant reading to boot. Stoicism (which had been around much longer than Seneca) held that men should live ‘in accordance with nature,’ learning to live in conformity with the world as it is and accepting whatever fate should bring their way. People should value and cultivate reason, and discipline the pleasures and the passions. Only in this way can true happiness be achieved. The duties Stoicism glorified – courage, self-control, simple habits, rationality and obedience to the State – corresponded closely to traditional Roman values, and Stoicism was the most influential philosophy in the Roman world for a long time. To some degree, it contrasted with Epicurean thought, which placed more value on the pursuit of individual pleasure. But in his letters Seneca displayed a remarkably open mind regarding Epicurus and his disciples, and the two schools of thought were not entirely at odds.
Many of the values Stoicism promoted were universal ones with wide appeal. Also, although the Stoics believed in a supreme providence that governed the universe, they were not particularly concerned with how this force was labeled: nature, divine reason, god, destiny, etc. This flexibility helped Stoicism adapt and fit within all kids of belief systems. Interestingly, the early Christian Church (which was very disfavorably disposed to most pagan writings) viewed Seneca as ‘one of them’ for this reason. This popularity was to continue into medieval times – in the Inferno Dante placed Seneca in Limbo, the highest place a non-Christian could aspire to, and Queen Elizabeth I “did much admire Senca’s wholesome advisings.”
However, Seneca has had his critics too over the centuries. He preached simple living and a rejection of luxury in his writings, but Seneca was one of the most powerful men in Rome and one of the wealthiest in the Western world during his lifetime. He was Emperor Nero’s chief advisor, and ‘the real master of the world’ for a while according to one modern writer. As chief imperial advisor, he almost certainly assisted Nero in the murder of the emperor’s own mother. Wealth and virtue are certainly not mutually exclusive, but extravagent wealth, advising a tyrant and being an accessory to murder do not scream good Stoic living. Whether Seneca lacked the courage of his own convictions, or was unable to practice what he preached, is at least in doubt. Also, Seneca is rarely (if ever) praised as a groundbreaking philosophical thinker. He did not invent Stoicism, but instead “spiritualized and humanized it” in his writings. Readers expecting Plato or Aristotle will probably be disappointed.
But readers interested in learning about Stoicism in general will be well served by this book. As I said earlier, I thought these letters were on the whole better than Seneca’s longer dialogues (which are not really ‘dialogues’ at all in any traditional sense, with one exception). As an introduction to Stoic philosophy, which was an important school of thought in the Greco-Roman world and beyond, you could do a lot worse. 3.5 stars.
March 11, 2024
Happiness is one serious matter
Seneca maintains that the greatest purpose in life is to achieve happiness, but not the empty and short-lived happiness of a fool while indulging in excessive pleasures or a carnivore when it comes across its prey, but rather a state of fearlessness, tranquility, self-control, and indifference to all that life brings.
The only way to accomplish this state of happiness is by living a virtuous and moral life, which means living in moderation and in harmony with nature.
Even though nature created us pure and free, Seneca believes that nobody is good by chance, as virtues, the ultimate good, can only be learned. Therefore, by a properly guided reason and clear consciousness we can attain this virtuousness that will lead us to wisdom; the gateway to happiness.
Besides the degree of indifference and detachment suggested by the Stoics along with the individual freedom to take one's own life, which gives this philosophy an esoteric feel to it, these Letters to Lucilius by Seneca are an excellent choice of a self-improvement book which I highly recommend.
Seneca maintains that the greatest purpose in life is to achieve happiness, but not the empty and short-lived happiness of a fool while indulging in excessive pleasures or a carnivore when it comes across its prey, but rather a state of fearlessness, tranquility, self-control, and indifference to all that life brings.
The only way to accomplish this state of happiness is by living a virtuous and moral life, which means living in moderation and in harmony with nature.
Even though nature created us pure and free, Seneca believes that nobody is good by chance, as virtues, the ultimate good, can only be learned. Therefore, by a properly guided reason and clear consciousness we can attain this virtuousness that will lead us to wisdom; the gateway to happiness.
Besides the degree of indifference and detachment suggested by the Stoics along with the individual freedom to take one's own life, which gives this philosophy an esoteric feel to it, these Letters to Lucilius by Seneca are an excellent choice of a self-improvement book which I highly recommend.
April 9, 2017
This book was quite good. One would think that a collection of letters would have much material that is of little utility to those outside the correspondents, but that isn't the case.
Seneca was a notable later Stoic. Very little of the first generation of Stoics survive, and we are left with mainly later Stoics like Epictetus, Rufus and Seneca; some may also include Marcus Aurelius to that list as well. Seneca was probably not the typical Stoic; indeed, he actually quotes Epicurus more times in here than any other philosopher is even mentioned. One is tempted to consider Seneca a closet Epicurean. He seemed to have more respect for Epicurus' philosophy than he may have even cared to admit. It is of course possible that he quoted him because he was also well respected by Lucilius, his correspondent, as well. But, whatever the case, Seneca was open to other philosophical influences besides just the Stoical, and Epicurus is a notable secondary, if not a primary, influence.
Often these letters come across as highly aphoristic. I highlighted quite a few lines of pithy wisdom in here. Mainly, I would say, Seneca was given to ethical philosophy. While there are some metaphysical thoughts here and there, his main focus is in regards to living a good life. Many of his thoughts focus on the need to live simply, and, in typical Stoical fashion, to live according to nature. His philosophy of moderation is still highly relevant today, and maybe even more than it was then, because we have many more frivolous distractions than were available in his day. His thoughts on slaves and slavery were years of head of their time, maybe hundreds of years. His ideas on God are also often sublime. He does comment on Plato a bit, and at the end of this work, he even provides some discussion relating to physics and metaphysics.
A great book overall. I cannot find much in here that I took issue with, so I can see no reason to give the work less than 5 stars.
Seneca was a notable later Stoic. Very little of the first generation of Stoics survive, and we are left with mainly later Stoics like Epictetus, Rufus and Seneca; some may also include Marcus Aurelius to that list as well. Seneca was probably not the typical Stoic; indeed, he actually quotes Epicurus more times in here than any other philosopher is even mentioned. One is tempted to consider Seneca a closet Epicurean. He seemed to have more respect for Epicurus' philosophy than he may have even cared to admit. It is of course possible that he quoted him because he was also well respected by Lucilius, his correspondent, as well. But, whatever the case, Seneca was open to other philosophical influences besides just the Stoical, and Epicurus is a notable secondary, if not a primary, influence.
Often these letters come across as highly aphoristic. I highlighted quite a few lines of pithy wisdom in here. Mainly, I would say, Seneca was given to ethical philosophy. While there are some metaphysical thoughts here and there, his main focus is in regards to living a good life. Many of his thoughts focus on the need to live simply, and, in typical Stoical fashion, to live according to nature. His philosophy of moderation is still highly relevant today, and maybe even more than it was then, because we have many more frivolous distractions than were available in his day. His thoughts on slaves and slavery were years of head of their time, maybe hundreds of years. His ideas on God are also often sublime. He does comment on Plato a bit, and at the end of this work, he even provides some discussion relating to physics and metaphysics.
A great book overall. I cannot find much in here that I took issue with, so I can see no reason to give the work less than 5 stars.
February 6, 2024
I read this by the fire, each morning one short letter at a time. I enjoyed it not as the richest source of such novel and profound philosophical insight, and more as a daily meditation on topics worth holding close. A deep thinker, clear and talented writer.
"If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires."
***
Friends, on the first Tuesday of the month I send out a short newsletter with updates on my novel-in-progress, a glimpse of one writer's life in small-town coastal Tofino, and a link to the month's free eBooks of various authors. It’s my privilege to stay connected to those who appreciate my work. If interested, and to receive a free copy of Immortal North, please sign up here: www.luckydollarmedia.com
"If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires."
***
Friends, on the first Tuesday of the month I send out a short newsletter with updates on my novel-in-progress, a glimpse of one writer's life in small-town coastal Tofino, and a link to the month's free eBooks of various authors. It’s my privilege to stay connected to those who appreciate my work. If interested, and to receive a free copy of Immortal North, please sign up here: www.luckydollarmedia.com
December 29, 2019
In his book concering the time he spent in Auschwitz famous austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl came to the conclusion that when you're no longer able to change the situation you find yourself in, you are challenged to change yourself. Being a best-selling book this ethos dawned the rebirth of stoicism for a society which is desperately longing for a way to cope with all cruelties life serves up. Seneca provided the philosophical foundations and Frankl knew how to transpose them when being faced with the atrocities of the 20th century. “If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person”, as Seneca puts it.
The beauty of this book rests upon its ease. Everyone should be able to derive uplifting thoughts from it and stick with them while facing the chaos life throws at you at times. Don't regard suffering per se as an unnecessary part of life but as an opportunity to acquire meaning for the decisions and actions you take.
The beauty of this book rests upon its ease. Everyone should be able to derive uplifting thoughts from it and stick with them while facing the chaos life throws at you at times. Don't regard suffering per se as an unnecessary part of life but as an opportunity to acquire meaning for the decisions and actions you take.
March 25, 2024
rip Seneca you would have loved stoic bros and their phonk edits on tiktok
August 20, 2015
No man’s good by accident. Virtue has to be learnt. Pleasure is a poor and petty thing. No value should be set on it: it’s something we share with dumb animals – the minutest, most insignificance creatures scutter after it. Glory’s an empty changeable thing, as fickle as the weather. Poverty’s no evil to anyone unless he kicks against it. Death is not an evil. What is it then? The one law mankind has that is free of all discrimination. Superstition is an idiotic heresy: it fears those it should love: it dishonours those it worships. For what difference does it make whether you deny the gods or bring them into disrepute? These are things which should be learnt and not just learnt but learnt by heart.
.::Stoic::.
Many of us are mistaken to think that word “ Stoic ” means inactive or even indifferent to Worldly pleasures, pains, and emotions. But, that is not entirely correct. It is all about bringing our soul to a state of inner calmness; In other words, Inner Peace! Stoicism is not about avoiding emotions and pleasures but to judge with clear conscience and free ourselves from the unwanted or unneeded.
“Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.”
.::Seneca::.
Seneca is one of the famous Roman philosophers, following Zeno’s stoicism. Though Seneca is often believed or questioned to be not much of a stoic himself, these letters help us know how he might have lived his life stoic way.
Keeping aside his early life and his forced suicide …
.::Letters::.
'No man was ever wise by chance'
This collection of letters from Seneca is easily one of the pearls in the sea of stoicism (So, there are other pearls and the word “sea” here simply symbolizes the vastness) It is not undisputable how stoic Seneca is. But, what I think is that we should see if there is anything good we can learn from him, rather than questioning about his life. These letters are like soul-health-capsules to make your spirit grow better only when taken as prescribed and the ingested capsule simmers deep down within you.
“As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.”
Seneca says, for better living and living free of filthy temptations and unrealistic desires, one should dedicate himself to her – philosophy – For which only she can save us! Well, Philosophy is not just about wisdom, but she also comprises Courage, Justice, and Temperance.
“But only philosophy will wake us; only philosophy will shake us out of that heavy sleep. Devote yourself entirely to her. You're worthy of her, she's worthy of you-fall into each other's arms. Say a firm, plain no to every other occupation.”
Each of these letters addresses a different topic or an emotion or an issue in a more detailed fashion, sometimes with the help of Epicurus, Virgil, etc… His sayings on how to live and how one should not be afraid of the death which would visit one or one’s friends or family, rather acknowledging and welcoming it as if it were an expected guest whose visit has been only unpredictable!
This Inuit word Iktsuarpok I recently learnt, sort of, explains what Seneca has to say about the Death.
You want to live—but do you know how to live? You are scared of dying—and, tell me, is the kind of life you lead really any different from being dead?
Again, the way Seneca died or to be precise, the way he invited his death was something, I think, questionable or disputable. But, there is a lot to learn from these gems of letters. What I am saying is to take away what is good and take not what is not.
A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.
Living in accordance with reason, nature and virtue, he says, is the way to live in harmony. Now, that is some difficult thought for most of us to even think of.
“If you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according what others think, you will never be rich.”
I am going to see how much I myself can follow. But, it never hurts to try. Does it?
Be harsh with yourself at times...
August 14, 2012
Seneca you wastrel! To teach of stoicism while living in such opulence. Eh-gads! Fabulous writing, I think I blushed unbeckoned during the blushing scene, and stop trying to get us all to give up oysters, they are both erotic and have the potential to profit a pearl or two. Unacceptable I say!
Also very forward thinking in regards to slavery I must say.
Also very forward thinking in regards to slavery I must say.
December 20, 2015
Hay algo muy gracioso que me pasa con Seneca. Lo leo y me parece poder vislumbrar como se puede intentar ser mejor persona. Sus consejos a Lucilo, y a quien lo lea, te ayudan a enfrentar tantas cosas distintas, la muerte, la amistad, la política, la espiritualidad, los libros, etc etc, da mil consejos, y sobre todo lo que se te pueda ocurrir, tiene una opinión que te ayuda a entenderlo o enfrentarlo. Consejos prácticos para la vida, o auto ayuda a la romana.
Bellísimo y muy recomendado.
Bellísimo y muy recomendado.
December 23, 2020
People have the wrong idea about Stoics, the ones with a capital ‘S’, the philosophical ones, not those folks who go around making everyone uncomfortable because nothing bothers them—which is what I used to think being a stoic was all about. It isn’t.
In Seven Deadly Sins, author, Kevin Vost, recommends Seneca as an excellent guide for living a good life, free from these deadly vices. I agree with him. In the second letter, for example, he hit on one of my weaknesses, my gluttonous reading. Okay, booklady, if you would be a booklady and not a bookslut, you must heed the Master. (Seneca tried to teach another once and that student never learned his lessons. Rather, Nero became the very opposite of all Seneca tried to teach him: tyrant, matricide, and cruel to his subjects as well as his family*. I pray I do a better job of heeding the good advice in these letters!)
In these letters Seneca is writing to his young friend, Lucilius, on a wide range of topics, such as: Saving Time; True and False Friendship; the Terrors of Death; Sharing Knowledge; Crowds; the Good which Abides; Progress; the Futility of Learning Maxims; the Value of Retirement; Allegiance to Virtue; Quiet Conversation; the Proper Style for a Philosopher’s Discourse and the God within Us, just to name a few. There are over 120 letters (topics) and Seneca has excellent, straightforward and reasonable advice on every subject. Indeed, I would take him for a tutor over Socrates or Plato however much I enjoy reading those Greek philosophers. Call me lazy, but with Socrates you have to answer endless questions and Plato requires sifting through a plentitude of dialogs. And when you have done as those illustrious gentlemen bid, you still can’t be sure if the answer you have arrived at is what was intended.
With Seneca, there are no guessing games. He says what he has to say and then even clarifies his position/argument further by giving illustrative examples. Lovely!
This book can be read straight through or approached just one topic at a time. It isn’t a book to be rushed, nor ever completely finished, but returned to again and again.
Make friends with Seneca. He is an excellent teacher, a sage of the first order, someone I hope to meet in the afterlife. The way he talks about God, he knows Him.
Big mistake Nero!
*Nero is accused of many crimes which subsequent historians debate, but all agree he failed this marvelous teacher!
In Seven Deadly Sins, author, Kevin Vost, recommends Seneca as an excellent guide for living a good life, free from these deadly vices. I agree with him. In the second letter, for example, he hit on one of my weaknesses, my gluttonous reading. Okay, booklady, if you would be a booklady and not a bookslut, you must heed the Master. (Seneca tried to teach another once and that student never learned his lessons. Rather, Nero became the very opposite of all Seneca tried to teach him: tyrant, matricide, and cruel to his subjects as well as his family*. I pray I do a better job of heeding the good advice in these letters!)
In these letters Seneca is writing to his young friend, Lucilius, on a wide range of topics, such as: Saving Time; True and False Friendship; the Terrors of Death; Sharing Knowledge; Crowds; the Good which Abides; Progress; the Futility of Learning Maxims; the Value of Retirement; Allegiance to Virtue; Quiet Conversation; the Proper Style for a Philosopher’s Discourse and the God within Us, just to name a few. There are over 120 letters (topics) and Seneca has excellent, straightforward and reasonable advice on every subject. Indeed, I would take him for a tutor over Socrates or Plato however much I enjoy reading those Greek philosophers. Call me lazy, but with Socrates you have to answer endless questions and Plato requires sifting through a plentitude of dialogs. And when you have done as those illustrious gentlemen bid, you still can’t be sure if the answer you have arrived at is what was intended.
With Seneca, there are no guessing games. He says what he has to say and then even clarifies his position/argument further by giving illustrative examples. Lovely!
This book can be read straight through or approached just one topic at a time. It isn’t a book to be rushed, nor ever completely finished, but returned to again and again.
Make friends with Seneca. He is an excellent teacher, a sage of the first order, someone I hope to meet in the afterlife. The way he talks about God, he knows Him.
Big mistake Nero!
*Nero is accused of many crimes which subsequent historians debate, but all agree he failed this marvelous teacher!
September 27, 2024
"Seneka sveic savu Lucīliju!" 124 vēstules, kas sarakstītas gandrīz pirms 2000 gadiem, bet par jautājumiem, kas aktuāli arī mūsdienās. Laikam visvairāk aizķēra ideja par to, ka nevajag izniekot laiku. Jādzīvo piepildīta dzīve. Kā saka Seneka, tas, kurš kļuvis vecs, bet dzīvojis tukšu dzīvi, ir nevis ilgi dzīvojis, bet ilgi miris.
July 23, 2024
This is probably the most famous of Seneca`s works and it`s still printed today. It contains 124 letters avowedly addressed to a friend, Lucilius. These short texts contain the most accessible exposition of the stoic philosophy in its Roman phase, and I read a Romanian translation by Ioana Costa. A way of life dedicated to self-rule, Stoicism was always influential in European thinking, especially Seneca`s version, even if the author was Nero`s teacher and one of the richest men in Rome. In the last decades, the Letters popularity has risen among philosophers and historians (after P. Hadot and M. Foucault), but also in public opinion, under the influence of personal development, marketing, and movies like Gladiator (Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault or The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981-82).
The texts are written in a direct style, easy to read and to adapt. I recommend them to anyone curious about Roman thinking and way of life. I suspend my judgment (a Stoic and skeptical habit) if Seneca`s Letters should be used as a code for living. I said that because I read them alongside an interesting commentary, one piece per day (Spectacolul filozofiei: Cum citim Scrisorile lui Seneca?). The commentary stressed the dramatic features of Seneca who played a role in his letters (more in another review to come).
I was attracted by the author`s analogy of philosophy with sports. This is the meaning of spiritual exercises which were stressed out by P. Hadot. The goal is to achieve spiritual independence, and for that, the student needs to be aware that there are things that depend on her, things that do not, and intermediate categories. In Seneca`s Letters, the ability to discern between essential and irrelevant objects is the path to wisdom.
Life is hard, tempting, and full of false promises, but there is also an underlying harmony between nature and culture stressed out in Seneca`s Letters. The wise is aware of it, but for most people, effort is required to understand how the world works and attune oneself to it. One way is memento more, an awareness of death which inspired the saying to live your day like it is the last of your life (see In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility). This wisdom is a moving target, Seneca emphasized the journey, in which strength of character is built by reason and discipline.
This self-examination is pushed to the most intensive limits, in which every reaction must be pondered by the care for spiritual independence. Stoicism is considered a heroic form of philosophy and impressed even Nietzsche. It has many drawbacks: maybe it`s too hard to apply, it may be self-centered or an illusion. I`m not sure if it is so practical or that the spiritual exercises are true instead of metaphors, but it is always a pleasant experience to read Seneca`s Letters.
The texts are written in a direct style, easy to read and to adapt. I recommend them to anyone curious about Roman thinking and way of life. I suspend my judgment (a Stoic and skeptical habit) if Seneca`s Letters should be used as a code for living. I said that because I read them alongside an interesting commentary, one piece per day (Spectacolul filozofiei: Cum citim Scrisorile lui Seneca?). The commentary stressed the dramatic features of Seneca who played a role in his letters (more in another review to come).
I was attracted by the author`s analogy of philosophy with sports. This is the meaning of spiritual exercises which were stressed out by P. Hadot. The goal is to achieve spiritual independence, and for that, the student needs to be aware that there are things that depend on her, things that do not, and intermediate categories. In Seneca`s Letters, the ability to discern between essential and irrelevant objects is the path to wisdom.
Life is hard, tempting, and full of false promises, but there is also an underlying harmony between nature and culture stressed out in Seneca`s Letters. The wise is aware of it, but for most people, effort is required to understand how the world works and attune oneself to it. One way is memento more, an awareness of death which inspired the saying to live your day like it is the last of your life (see In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility). This wisdom is a moving target, Seneca emphasized the journey, in which strength of character is built by reason and discipline.
This self-examination is pushed to the most intensive limits, in which every reaction must be pondered by the care for spiritual independence. Stoicism is considered a heroic form of philosophy and impressed even Nietzsche. It has many drawbacks: maybe it`s too hard to apply, it may be self-centered or an illusion. I`m not sure if it is so practical or that the spiritual exercises are true instead of metaphors, but it is always a pleasant experience to read Seneca`s Letters.
June 16, 2024
Letters From A Stoic is absolutely amazing, and its philosophical letters are precisely what I needed at this time. These timeless wisdom pack more punch than a triple shot of espresso and are as relevant today as they were in Ancient Rome.
🧐
Now, I'm a hardcore fan of Marcus Aurelius. Meditations were a game-changer. I've dog-eared that book so much that it looks like it survived a small tornado. I've been recommending it left and right because of its wisdom-filled gospel. And then boom! I read Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, and whoa, I was fucking astounded! I found myself tabbing Seneca even more than Meditations, and I welcomed that type of predicament! 🤓
Seneca has this way of making Stoicism super approachable. It's not just throwing big ideas out there. He's tying them into everyday life, which makes it very practical. He discusses handling emotions, juggling social obligations, and really living out those high Stoic ideals in ways that hit home hard. This man's take on FRIENDSHIP IS PURE GOLD . He talks about it not just as a nice-to-have, but as a core part of our human wiring that is essential for personal growth and true happiness. 🤝
With Marcus Aurelius' introspective soliloquies, Meditations shows us the inner workings of the most powerful man of his time, which is as fascinating as it is raw. Marcus was writing for himself, so there's this stark honesty that's pretty unparalleled. In contrast, Seneca's Letters From A Stoic has a conversational tone that makes you feel like he's right there, chatting over coffee, doling out advice that's as actionable today as it was back in his time. 💯
I love both of these philosophers. Marcus gave me the no-nonsense, tough-love pep talk through his diaries, and Seneca brought the wisdom down to earth, making it super accessible and utterly compelling. Please don't ever put a gun to my head and make me choose between the two. They both offer brilliant insights that are just too good to pass up. 💡
Sorry, I can't help the comparisons. Just read both because they're AMAZING. The quotes are just tremendous. Too many to list in this review... ✍️
Now, I'm a hardcore fan of Marcus Aurelius. Meditations were a game-changer. I've dog-eared that book so much that it looks like it survived a small tornado. I've been recommending it left and right because of its wisdom-filled gospel. And then boom! I read Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, and whoa, I was fucking astounded! I found myself tabbing Seneca even more than Meditations, and I welcomed that type of predicament! 🤓
"If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person."
Seneca has this way of making Stoicism super approachable. It's not just throwing big ideas out there. He's tying them into everyday life, which makes it very practical. He discusses handling emotions, juggling social obligations, and really living out those high Stoic ideals in ways that hit home hard. This man's take on FRIENDSHIP IS PURE GOLD . He talks about it not just as a nice-to-have, but as a core part of our human wiring that is essential for personal growth and true happiness. 🤝
"There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with."
With Marcus Aurelius' introspective soliloquies, Meditations shows us the inner workings of the most powerful man of his time, which is as fascinating as it is raw. Marcus was writing for himself, so there's this stark honesty that's pretty unparalleled. In contrast, Seneca's Letters From A Stoic has a conversational tone that makes you feel like he's right there, chatting over coffee, doling out advice that's as actionable today as it was back in his time. 💯
"Treat your inferiors in the way in which you would like to be treated by your own superiors."
I love both of these philosophers. Marcus gave me the no-nonsense, tough-love pep talk through his diaries, and Seneca brought the wisdom down to earth, making it super accessible and utterly compelling. Please don't ever put a gun to my head and make me choose between the two. They both offer brilliant insights that are just too good to pass up. 💡
"I shall show you a love philtre, compounded without drug or herb or witch's spell — it is this: if you wish to be loved, love."
Sorry, I can't help the comparisons. Just read both because they're AMAZING. The quotes are just tremendous. Too many to list in this review... ✍️
"The mind has to be given some time off, but in such a way that it may be refreshed, not relaxed till it goes to pieces."
April 6, 2021
We should develop a fondness for some good man and keep him always before our eyes, to live as though he were watching and act in all things as though he could see. —Epicurus (in 11.8)
__________
I send you greetings from my villa at Nomentum, wishing you excellence of mind. (110.1)
The work that I am doing is for posterity. (8.2)
__________
The right path, which I myself discovered late in life when weary from wandering, I now point out to others. (8.3)
The things I say will benefit you whether you like it or not. It’s time for a candid voice to reach you. (89.19)
This is how you should speak; this is how you should live . . . These should be our reflections, dear Lucilius, these are the ways to shape our minds. 10.4, 117.25)
__________
I will tell you what is my own state of mind when I read him: I yearn to challenge every stroke of fortune—to shout, “Why let up fortune? do your worst! See, I am ready!” (64.4)
All his work has progress as its goal, and excellence of mind. It does not look for applause. (100.11)
So this is what philosophy will do for you—and indeed, I think it is the greatest gift of all: you will never regret what you have done . . . [Cf. To be able to enjoy one's past life is to live twice —Martial 10.23.7] . . . A mind made flawless, a mind that rivals the divine, that elevates itself above the human sphere and places nothing beyond itself . . . Do not judge yourself to be happy until all your joys arise from yourself, until, after viewing the objects of human competition, covetousness, and possessiveness, you find—I will not say nothing to prefer, but nothing to set your heart on. (115.18, 124.23,24)
__________
I will write more about the book when I have been over it a second time. (46.3)
I started reading Seneca's Letters for the second time at the start of last year. I started reading a couple of letters each day before bed, then stopped for whatever reason.
Read always from authors of proven worth; and if ever you are inclined to turn aside to others, return afterward to the previous ones. (2.4)
I then resumed and started reading a few first thing in the morning after I was fully dressed and perfumed and sat down with my cup of coffee. I think this is the best way to do it
What other endeavour do you have than to make yourself a better person each day—to lay aside some error, to come to understand that what you think are flaws in your situation are in fact flaws in yourself? (50.1)
No matter what is going on in your life, stresses, anxieties, whatever; reading Seneca every morning reminds you that you’re not seeing things clearly, that it’s really not as bad as you think it is
More things frighten us than really affect us, and we are more often afflicted in thought than in fact. (13.4)
That what you think is bad, is really only your opinion about the thing, not the thing itself. And your opinion is always within your power to control. Your mind is always within your power to control.
No one is happy who does not believe himself to be. —Unknown (9.21)
It’s not easy. Most times it’s incredibly difficult. And just reading Seneca, just reading Epictetus, just reading Marcus Aurelius won’t help you
There are two parts to virtue: one is the study of truth, and the other is action. (94.45)
You can’t just read these people’s works, scribbling down passages but not putting them to any use
Who regards his doctrine, not as a vain display of knowledge, but as a rule of life; who obeys himself and complies with his own precepts —Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 2.4
You need to apply them.
“But it’s not easy!” you say. No, it’s not. Maybe you’re addicted to something. Maybe you lost your job. Or a friend. Or a parent. Or a partner . . .
I frequently encounter people who think that what they themselves cannot do is impossible, and who say that our Stoic theories are beyond the capacities of human nature. I myself have a much higher opinion of human beings: they are actually capable of doing these thing, but they are unwilling. Has anyone who really made the effort ever found the task beyond him? Hasn’t it always been found easier in the doing? It is not the difficulty of things that saps our confidence, but our lack of confidence that creates the difficulty. (104.25-26) . . . In fact, though, there’s something else involved: our love for our own faults. We defend them and we would rather make excuses for them than shake them off. Human nature has been endowed with sufficient strength if only we use it. We have only to assemble our resources and get them all to fight on our behalf rather than against us. Inability is just an excuse; the real reason is unwillingness. (116.8)
So no, it's not easy. But it’s possible.
So many things to know: when will you learn them? When will you fix them in your mind so that they cannot be forgotten? When will you try them out? For these are not like other objets of study. With these, memorisation is not enough: you must out them into effect. The happy person is not the one who knows them but the one who performs them. (75.7)
So do it. Perform them. All you need is to be willing.
What do you need in order to be good? Willingness. (80.4)
You are hard at work, forgetting everything else and sticking to the single task of making yourself a better person every day. This I approve, and rejoice in it too. I urge you, indeed plead with you, to persevere. All the same, I have a warning for you. There are those whose wish is to be noticed rather than to make moral progress. Don’t be like them . . . (5.1)
I could keep going on and on and on but
I see there will be no end to this topic unless I just make an end. (87.11)
Farewell.
__________
P.S. I decided to share the list of quotes I noted down from here in a post on my website for others to use as they wish:
http://thetrueaesthete.art/blog/2021/...
__________
Remind yourself often how fine a thing it is to reach the summit of life before you die, and then to be in peace as you wait out the remainder of your time, relying only on yourself. For once one possesses happiness, duration does not make it any happier . . . Would you like to know what it is that makes people greedy for the future? Not one of them yet belongs to himself. (32.3, 4)
These are the lessons you need to learn or, rather, take to heart. (123.17)
January 23, 2024
It took me just three reading sessions to get through this one & I can't help the impression I'll keep revisiting it regularly. I liked it more than Epictetus & quite likely even more than Marcus Aurelius - why so? Because it was quite clear that MA was writing "for himself", and Seneca has been trying to share his thoughts with 2nd party (Lucilius).
Apart from that, his observations & suggestions frequently feel surprisingly fresh & relevant. Few times I had the impression he's exactly nailing what I was thinking (e.g., about the nature of friendship), but frequently in a more concise & to-the-point way. This book doesn't cover 100% of the letters, just the ones that weren't too focused on Rome's geopolitics of Seneca's day, so it's hard to spot anything that would age badly here.
The language is very comprehensible & all the concepts covered are presented in a way that is approachable even for someone who wasn't familiar with a stoic doctrine before.
Strongly recommended - it's pure wisdom & stays as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.
Apart from that, his observations & suggestions frequently feel surprisingly fresh & relevant. Few times I had the impression he's exactly nailing what I was thinking (e.g., about the nature of friendship), but frequently in a more concise & to-the-point way. This book doesn't cover 100% of the letters, just the ones that weren't too focused on Rome's geopolitics of Seneca's day, so it's hard to spot anything that would age badly here.
The language is very comprehensible & all the concepts covered are presented in a way that is approachable even for someone who wasn't familiar with a stoic doctrine before.
Strongly recommended - it's pure wisdom & stays as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago.
April 17, 2014
tl;dr: Classic philosophy, mixed with old-people-opinions
This is really good if you want to have a primer into Stoicism - the writing in these letters is straightforward, each letter handles two or three themes and is usually only a couple of pages long.
The annoying parts are Seneca's old-people-opinions, some of which are:
1. People who stay up all night are terrible
2. 'For it is silly [.] to spend one's time exercising the biceps'
3. Popular styles are terrible: 'It's object is to sway a mass audience'
4. Everything was better in the past and the present is bad ('The earth herself, untilled, was more productive, her yields being more than ample for the needs of peoples who did not raid each other.' etc. pp. - the same arguments 2000 years later repeated in the terrible Ishmael)
But, to quote the man,
And of these 'helpful pieces of teaching' the letters are chock-full.
Bonus best quote:
This is really good if you want to have a primer into Stoicism - the writing in these letters is straightforward, each letter handles two or three themes and is usually only a couple of pages long.
The annoying parts are Seneca's old-people-opinions, some of which are:
1. People who stay up all night are terrible
2. 'For it is silly [.] to spend one's time exercising the biceps'
3. Popular styles are terrible: 'It's object is to sway a mass audience'
4. Everything was better in the past and the present is bad ('The earth herself, untilled, was more productive, her yields being more than ample for the needs of peoples who did not raid each other.' etc. pp. - the same arguments 2000 years later repeated in the terrible Ishmael)
But, to quote the man,
We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching, and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application [..] and learn them so well that words become works.
And of these 'helpful pieces of teaching' the letters are chock-full.
Bonus best quote:
Lucius Piso was drunk from the very moment of his appointment as Warden of the City of Rome.
July 29, 2012
This is hard to rate because the book is loaded with valuable insights. There are several quotes that will apply to your life today.
That said, it was very hard to read. It is boring beyond belief. It took me months to get through it because I could only take a few pages at a time before my mind wondered off.
I don't think I got all there is to get from it in one read. This is more of a book that needs to be studied. Perhaps leave is laying on the coffee table and read a page or two a day with a high lighter.
I will probably read it many times over to let all the wisdom sink in, but this same information could be easily condensed into another book with fewer words, and better editing to appeal to modern day readers.
That said, it was very hard to read. It is boring beyond belief. It took me months to get through it because I could only take a few pages at a time before my mind wondered off.
I don't think I got all there is to get from it in one read. This is more of a book that needs to be studied. Perhaps leave is laying on the coffee table and read a page or two a day with a high lighter.
I will probably read it many times over to let all the wisdom sink in, but this same information could be easily condensed into another book with fewer words, and better editing to appeal to modern day readers.
July 28, 2018
This epistolary glimpse into Roman life between a retiring and reflecting upper echelon diplomat Seneca and a presumably peer and friend lays out in didactic form the tenants of Stoic philosophy as held by those among that elite school of thought. Seneca's tone indicates he's the elder more learned communicant proffering wisdom earned through experience as one in near proximity to both power and servanthood/slavery. He trots out all the main themes and ties them into regular day examples of how one ought conduct behavior as well thought processes to gird those actions. For instance how one should treat his slaves - mostly a golden rule aspect albeit master/slave dynamic. Much ado about death and the Socratic example of non-concern over when, how, but rather if it is good or/and satisfactory. To die well is the pinnacle of having lived well in getting there. Virtue must be sought for and learned by first overcoming the desires of self. Topics and antipathies like body/mind, soul/or lack thereof, city/state, ruler/slave, time/infinity are repeatedly woven into his missives like a series of mini-lectures building his overarching all or wholeness. There are fascinating commentaries on everyday life at the top of privileged status including food/drink/entertainment/architecture/dress/sexual mores/travel/etc., Politics gets its due of course. In referring to earlier Greek polity he muses: "Among human beings the highest merit means the highest position. So they used to choose their ruler for his character. (Just like today, right!?) Hence peoples were supremely fortunate when among them a man could never be more powerful than others unless he was a better man than they were. For there is nothing dangerous in a man's having as much power as he likes if he takes the view that he has power to do only what is his duty to do."
Well, so, even if Seneca's right Stoic ways were said to be often at odds with objective reality it doesn't detract from his firm understanding of and efforts to inculcate stoic equanimity as right path. Who can fault human aspiration towards righteousness falling off or short of full enactment. His words as rhetoric makes believable an enduring thought for living as well dying.
Well, so, even if Seneca's right Stoic ways were said to be often at odds with objective reality it doesn't detract from his firm understanding of and efforts to inculcate stoic equanimity as right path. Who can fault human aspiration towards righteousness falling off or short of full enactment. His words as rhetoric makes believable an enduring thought for living as well dying.
February 17, 2022
Questo è un mattone che va letto necessariamente una volta nella vita. Ogni lettera è una pagina ricca di tanti insegnamenti dati dal grandissimo maestro di vita, Seneca. L’ho trovato super interessante e pieno di insegnamenti e soprattutto molto attuale!!!
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