Letters From a Stoic - Seneca: Summary of all 124 Letters
We have sailed past life so fast that we can still remember the things we did as a child as if they were just yesterday. The days of our youth always seem close behind.
The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.
The wise man will always be contemplating his actions and put himself in the right place to succeed or perform whatever action he desires. He reflects on the quality, not the quantity, of his existence, for that is what matters to him.
The question that we ask shall not be when we shall die, but how we should die.
It is folly to die through fear of dying.
In the same way we select modes of transportation, we shall be able to select modes of death as well. There is no need to conduct a review with others on how you must die. Live if you desire, die if you desire. Live in your body, however, if you were about to depart it today.
…the foulest death is preferable to the fairest slavery.
The value of advice depends mostly on the time when it is given. Our plans are forayed because we do not have a goal. When we are sailing without a destination, any wind is the wrong wind. The race of man ends at death. You may possess all the colors, but if you do not know what to paint, you will not be successful.
This supreme good is virtue, the rational part, where our impulses will be clarified.
Therefore let us press on and persevere. There remains much more of the road than we have put behind us; but the greater part of progress is the desire to progress.
Ambition, fear of death, and greed have conquered the conquerors of the world. Let it not conquer you.
The study of philosophy is supposed to be a business that you take up whenever you can. Not to postpone until later, but to choose to be a philosopher today. No amount of time is long enough to devote for the study of philosophy, when we possess leisure. If we take a break philosophy will dissolute itself into its beginnings, its roots.
The king in public life does not wonder at how many people have been hurt, but by his hurt of the actions above him. The trouble of ambition is that it does not look back. The leisure we possess shall contribute to the virtue and good of ourselves and our situation. We all have good parts within us that we can use to contribute to our soul and the eternal well-being of our natural selves. If we poison those roots, then we have no cure.