Letters From a Stoic - Seneca: Summary of all 124 Letters
Many men deal fairly with other men, but few deal fairly with the Gods. Strive to live correctly, not for long. For right living requires the soul. We should praise the man who has invested their time effectively, no matter how much. The fullest span of life, accordingly to Seneca, is possessing wisdom.
says the wise man, “I do not depart more valiantly because of this hope – because I judge the path lies clear before me to my own gods. I have indeed earned admission to their presence, and in fact have already been in their company; I have sent my soul to them as they had previously sent theirs to me. But suppose that I am utterly annihilated, and that after death nothing mortal remains; I have no less courage, even if, when I depart, my course leads – nowhere.”
Does it matter for how long you attempt to avoid your destiny?
Philosophy can be issued to strike a particular endpoint of conflict, suffering, or problem.
Remember that pain has this most excellent quality: if prolonged it cannot be severe, and if severe it cannot be prolonged; and that we should bravely accept whatever commands the inevitable laws of the universe lay upon us.
Seneca argues we should solely use logic and similar reasoning with proofs to deduce arguments or advice to friends in which we do not know the area of expertise. The material which you provide is just.
If someone were to offer advice to a madman, you would be just as mad as the person whom you are attempting to advise.
Forgetting trouble is the way to cure it. Fortune favours the brave, but the coward is foiled by his faint heart.
Virtue depends on both learning and practice. You may have learned something once, however, their mind is still not consistent with the current shape. In an individual, you find the vices of the nation. Each man in corrupting himself furthermore corrupts others. When men disturb the world through war, they themselves are disturbed.
Who puts on the purple robe for the sake of flaunting it in no man's eyes? Who uses gold plate when he dines alone? Who, as he flings himself down beneath the shadow of some rustic tree, displays in solitude the splendour of his luxury?
Vices are spread out with a branch as far as the admiring crowd.
Don’t ask for what you’ll wish you hadn’t got.
Sometimes we seek things with such effort the things which we should decline if offered willingly. The best example of the top would be a woman. We perceive perhaps not the best of the bunch so vigorously at times when if we were to be actually offered such a woman, we shall deny her.
Without the perfect training, a man will strive to be honorable while half the time looking in the rear view mirror. In the case of wisdom Seneca argues the worst fault is to commit willful sin.
With regard to wisdom, we are taught how to debate and not how to live. What was a nourishment to a hungry man has now become a burden to the full stomach.