Letters From a Stoic - Seneca: Summary of all 124 Letters
Powers can never inspire faith except when the difficulties present are mountainous in nature. Nobody can therefore develop their powers if they do not get firstly destroyed and broken.
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
A habit of humanity is to exaggerate, and imagine our sorrow and downfall. We are tormented by the past or future. Bad fortune is fickle.
There is nothing so certain among these objects of fear that it is not more certain still that things we dread sink into nothing and that things we hope for mock us.
The fool, according to Seneca, is always preparing to live.
Conduct yourselves not to whim of the body, but to understand that we cannot live without it.
…we fear want, we fear sickness, and we fear the troubles which result from the violence of the stronger.
Avoid this hatred, jealousy, and scorn in which you falter, for no such action will bring you down to a lower level. Philosophy in nature is peaceful, and can be used to “mind our own business”. The wise man, says Seneca, will not upset the customs of the people. He seeks to better the world from a private place, not out of fear, but akin to silencing yourself away to make room for new ideas and improvements.
Without philosophy the mind is not well. The body, although it may be strong, it is only strong in the sense of a madman.
The fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
The brawn of a strong muscle can only be developed to a point, until we face a bull. But the mind, when it is destined to face much more, only the human is the state of the art when it comes to possibility of mental strength.
There is no reason to put trust in yourself too quickly. Philosophy is an art that takes time, solitude, and contemplation.
If you live according to nature, you will never be poor. If you live according to opinion, you will never be rich. - Epicurus
The demands of opinions know no end. We can have everything, and have an opinion that we need more.