Letters From a Stoic - Seneca: Summary of all 124 Letters
We spend all our time planning for eternity, but we fail to look over our shoulders, where Death inhabits.
He who was venturing investments by land and sea, who had also entered public life and left no type of business untried, during the very realization of financial success and during the very onrush of the money that flowed into his coffers, was snatched from the world.
Don’t wait to surrender yourself to a life of ease. Work to live it out now. You do not own tomorrow, so make today good. Everything is doubtful, even for those who are prosperous. Mortality as we progress in the ranks only remains in our minds so long as we entertain it.
Let us therefore work to set the balance right today.
One who daily puts the finishing touches to his life is never in want of time. And yet, from this want arise fear and a craving for the future which eats away the mind.
Start to live today so that you be ready when you don’t. Be sure in the face of what is unsure. It doesn’t matter how long you live, but that you live well.
And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long.
We don’t believe that anything which possess multiple parts is good, describes Seneca. The single good can be checked against essential and distinct qualities. The utterance which begets man is not good or bad in the sense that one who speaks their disapproval is not measured in the good of itself, the lips and tough smacking together. Praise is valued partly by the behavior towards another individual, not merely consistent in the acting and speech directed that way. Being the one who praises is the important part, not being the one who is praised. To praise worthy men is an honorable action. To judge a man worthy of praise, moreover, is also praise itself. Becoming renown depends upon the judgments of the good men.
The human soul is a boundless thing, one that can touch even the Gods. The soul does not put up with a narrow span of existence. In our life, we shall be preparing for what lies beyond, similar to how a Mother takes care of a child for 9 months before it springs into the open world, similarly we shall take care of our soul so that it be well when we spring into a new world. The day you die is the birthday of your eternity.
It is from man’s everyday group that dangers come. Not the accidents of life which are aggressive but rare. The damage from a man can be instantaneous. Do not live a life of harm and you can life of freedom from deceit.
Let her strip off your faults, rather than assist you to decry the faults of others. Let her not hold aloof from the customs of mankind, nor make it her business to condemn whatever she herself does not do. A man may be wise without parade and without arousing enmity.
…the good man should not live as long as it pleases him, but as long as he ought.
The place in which we inhabit does little for our purpose, so long as we can find seclusion in the midst of study and business and make the mind a master of itself.
What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to another? If you would escape your troubles, you need not another place but another personality.