# Letters From a Stoic  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Seneca]] - Full Title:: Letters From a Stoic - Category: #books ## Highlights > Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius – set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words, – that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach. ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=129)) > Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands. ([Location 135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=135)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. ([Location 137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=137)) > What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity, – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay. ([Location 138](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=138)) > For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask. Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the quality is vile. Farewell. ([Location 146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=146)) > Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. ([Location 160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=160)) > Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy's camp, – not as a deserter, but as a scout. He says: "Contented poverty is an honourable estate." ([Location 163](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=163)) > Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=164)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough. ([Location 166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=166)) > All you need to do is to advance; you will thus understand that some things are less to be dreaded, precisely because they inspire us with great fear. No evil is great which is the last evil of all. Death arrives; it would be a thing to dread, if it could remain with you. But death must either not come at all, or else must come and pass away. ([Location 199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=199)) > Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=207)) > For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it. No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed. Therefore, encourage and toughen your spirit against the mishaps that afflict even the most powerful. ([Location 208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=208)) > No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him. ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=212)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Therefore I declare to you: he is lord of your life that scorns his own. ([Location 215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=215)) > It, too, is culled from another man's Garden: "Poverty brought into conformity with the law of nature, is great wealth." Do you know what limits that law of nature ordains for us? ([Location 222](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=222)) > Inwardly, we ought to be different in all respects, but our exterior should conform to society. Do not wear too fine, nor yet too frowzy, a toga. One needs no silver plate, encrusted and embossed in solid gold; but we should not believe the lack of silver and gold to be proof of the simple life. Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard; otherwise, we shall frighten away and repel the very persons whom we are trying to improve. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=234)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time. This is the mean of which I approve; our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of a sage and the ways of the world at large; all men should admire it, but they should understand it also. ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=243)) > let men find that we are unlike the common herd, if they look closely. If they visit us at home, they should admire us, rather than our household appointments. ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=246)) > It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches. ([Location 248](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=248)) > Hecato that the limiting of desires helps also to cure fears: "Cease to hope," he says, "and you will cease to fear." ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=249)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But the chief cause of both these ills is that we do not adapt ourselves to the present, but send our thoughts a long way ahead. And so foresight, the noblest blessing of the human race, becomes perverted. ([Location 253](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=253)) > Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. And if wisdom were given me under the express condition that it must be kept hidden and not uttered, I should refuse it. No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it. ([Location 268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=268)) > Hecato; it is these words: "What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=279)) > But nothing is so damaging to good character as the habit of lounging at the games; for then it is that vice steals subtly upon one through the avenue of pleasure. What do you think I mean? I mean that I come home more greedy, more ambitious, more voluptuous, and even more cruel and inhuman, because I have been among human beings. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=288)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you. Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. ([Location 309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=309)) > Democritus says: "One man means as much to me as a multitude, and a multitude only as much as one man." ([Location 318](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=318)) > Epicurus, written to one of the partners of his studies: "I write this not for the many, but for you; each of us is enough of an audience for the other." ([Location 321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=321)) > Many men praise you; but have you any reason for being pleased with yourself, if you are a person whom the many can understand? ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=322)) > Your good qualities should face inwards. ([Location 323](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=323)) > I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially from my own affairs; ([Location 329](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=329)) > I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. ([Location 332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=332)) > And any man among you who wishes to live a life of safety will avoid, to the utmost of his power, these limed twigs of her favour, by which we mortals, most wretched in this respect also, are deceived; ([Location 334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=334)) - Note: Lined twigs - sticky birdlime spread on a twig to ensnare a bird. Birdlime is any number of natural sticky products produced by the ancients. > "Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life – that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind. Eat merely to relieve your hunger; drink merely to quench your thirst; dress merely to keep out the cold; house yourself merely as a protection against personal discomfort. It matters little whether the house be built of turf, or of variously coloured imported marble; understand that a man is sheltered just as well by a thatch as by a roof of gold. Despise everything that useless toil creates as an ornament and an object of beauty. And reflect that nothing except the soul is worthy of wonder; for to the soul, if it be great, naught is great." ([Location 339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=339)) > conning Epicurus. I read to-day, in his works, the following sentence: "If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy." ([Location 348](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=348)) > Still alien is whatever you have gained/By coveting I recall that you yourself expressed this idea much more happily and concisely: What Chance has made yours is not really yours. And a third, spoken by you still more happily, shall not be omitted: The good that could be given, can be removed. I shall not charge this up to the expense account, because I have given it to you from your own stock. Farewell. ([Location 356](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=356)) - Note: Seneca reciting back Lucilius' lines to him > In this sense the wise man is self-sufficient, that he can do without friends, not that he desires to do without them. When I say "can," I mean this: he endures the loss of a friend with equanimity. ([Location 372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=372)) > Hecato, says: "I can show you a philtre, compounded without drugs, herbs, or any witch's incantation: 'If you would be loved, love.'" Now there is great pleasure, not only in maintaining old and established friendships, but also in beginning and acquiring new ones. ([Location 376](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=376)) > The philosopher Attalus used to say: "It is more pleasant to make than to keep a friend, as it is more pleasant to the artist to paint than to have finished painting." When one is busy and absorbed in one's work, the very absorption affords great delight; but when one has withdrawn one's hand from the completed masterpiece, the pleasure is not so keen. ([Location 379](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=379)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Henceforth it is the fruits of his art that he enjoys; it was the art itself that he enjoyed while he was painting. ([Location 382](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=382)) > The end will be like the beginning: he has made friends with one who might assist him out of bondage; at the first rattle of the chain such a friend will desert him. These are the so-called "fair-weather" friendships; one who is chosen for the sake of utility will be satisfactory only so long as he is useful. ([Location 387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=387)) > He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays. ([Location 392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=392)) > For what purpose, then, do I make a man my friend? In order to have someone for whom I may die, whom I may follow into exile, against whose death I may stake my own life, and pay the pledge, too. ([Location 393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=393)) > "The wise man is self-sufficient." This phrase, my dear Lucilius, is incorrectly explained by many; for they withdraw the wise man from the world, and force him to dwell within his own skin. But we must mark with care what this sentence signifies and how far it applies; the wise man is sufficient unto himself for a happy existence, but not for mere existence. For he needs many helps towards mere existence; but for a happy existence he needs only a sound and upright soul, one that despises Fortune. ([Location 402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=402)) > I should like also to state to you one of the distinctions of Chrysippus, who declares that the wise man is in want of nothing, and yet needs many things. "On the other hand," he says, "nothing is needed by the fool, for he does not understand how to use anything, but he is in want of everything." ([Location 406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=406)) > People may say: "But what sort of existence will the wise man have, if he be left friendless when thrown into prison, or when stranded in some foreign nation, or when delayed on a long voyage, or when out upon a lonely shore?" His life will be like that of Jupiter, who, amid the dissolution of the world, when the gods are confounded together and Nature rests for a space from her work, can retire into himself and give himself over to his own thoughts. ([Location 412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=412)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > In some such way as this the sage will act; he will retreat into himself, and live with himself. As long as he is allowed to order his affairs according to his judgment, he is self-sufficient – and marries a wife; he is self-sufficient – and brings up children; he is self-sufficient – and yet could not live if he had to live without the society of man. ([Location 415](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=415)) > For Stilbo, after his country was captured and his children and his wife lost, as he emerged from the general desolation alone and yet happy, spoke as follows to Demetrius, called Sacker of Cities because of the destruction he brought upon them, in answer to the question whether he had lost anything: "I have all my goods with me!" There is a brave and stout-hearted man for you! The enemy conquered, but Stilbo conquered his conqueror. "I have lost nothing!" Aye, he forced Demetrius to wonder whether he himself had conquered after all. "My goods are all with me!" In other words, he deemed nothing that might be taken from him to be a good. ([Location 421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=421)) > Epicurus himself, the reviler of Stilbo, spoke similar language; put it down to my credit, though I have already wiped out my debt for the present day. He says: "Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world." ([Location 430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=430)) > "A man may rule the world and still be unhappy, if he does not feel that he is supremely happy." ([Location 433](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=433)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca > Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest. ([Location 434](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=434)) - Note: Seneca > Athenodorus: "Know that thou art freed from all desires when thou hast reached such a point that thou prayest to God for nothing except what thou canst pray for openly." ([Location 455](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=455)) > "Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening"? ([Location 458](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=458)) - Note: Seneca > "Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them." Such, my dear Lucilius, is the counsel of Epicurus; he has quite properly given us a guardian and an attendant. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=482)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Stoic 3rd eye > Choose therefore a Cato; or, if Cato seems too severe a model, choose some Laelius, a gentler spirit. Choose a master whose life, conversation, and soul-expressing face have satisfied you; picture him always to yourself as your protector or your pattern. For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler. ([Location 487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=487)) - Note: Stoic 3rd eye > Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it. ([Location 502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=502)) > Life is most delightful when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline. And I myself believe that the period which stands, so to speak, on the edge of the roof, possesses pleasures of its own. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=504)) > How comforting it is to have tired out one's appetites, and to have done with them! ([Location 506](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=506)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "But," you say, "it is a nuisance to be looking death in the face!" Death, however, should be looked in the face by young and old alike. ([Location 507](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=507)) > Moreover, no one is so old that it would be improper for him to hope for another day of existence. And one day, mind you, is a stage on life's journey. ([Location 508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=508)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Our span of life is divided into parts; it consists of large circles enclosing smaller. One circle embraces and bounds the rest; it reaches from birth to the last day of existence. The next circle limits the period of our young manhood. The third confines all of childhood in its circumference. Again, there is, in a class by itself, the year; it contains within itself all the divisions of time by the multiplication of which we get the total of life. The month is bounded by a narrower ring. The smallest circle of all is the day; but even a day has its beginning and its ending, its sunrise and its sunset. Hence Heraclitus, whose obscure style gave him his surname, remarked: "One day is equal to every day." ([Location 510](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=510)) > I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me/Is finished. ([Location 523](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=523)) > And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. When a man has said: "I have lived!", every morning he arises he receives a bonus. ([Location 524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=524)) > "It is wrong to live under constraint; but no man is constrained to live under constraint." ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=527)) - Note: Epicurus > There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. ([Location 543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=543)) > What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come. ([Location 546](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=546)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow. ([Location 547](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=547)) > Do me the favour, when men surround you and try to talk you into believing that you are unhappy, to consider not what you hear but what you yourself feel, and to take counsel with your feelings and question yourself independently, because you know your own affairs better than anyone else does. ([Location 552](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=552)) > First of all, consider whether your proofs of future trouble are sure. For it is more often the case that we are troubled by our apprehensions, and that we are mocked by that mocker, rumour, which is wont to settle wars, but much more often settles individuals. ([Location 560](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=560)) > Yes, my dear Lucilius; we agree too quickly with what people say. We do not put to the test those things which cause our fear; we do not examine into them; ([Location 562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=562)) > The mind at times fashions for itself false shapes of evil when there are no signs that point to any 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. ([Location 573](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=573)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Accordingly, weigh carefully your hopes as well as your fears, and whenever all the elements are in doubt, decide in your own favour; believe what you prefer. And if fear wins a majority of the votes, incline in the other direction anyhow, and cease to harass your soul, reflecting continually that most mortals, even when no troubles are actually at hand or are certainly to be expected in the future, become excited and disquieted. ([Location 579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=579)) > We let ourselves drift with every breeze; we are frightened at uncertainties, just as if they were certain. We observe no moderation. The slightest thing turns the scales and throws us forthwith into a panic. ([Location 583](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=583)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > I am exhorting you far too long, since you need reminding rather than exhortation. ([Location 588](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=588)) > "The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live." ([Location 591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=591)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca > Look within your own mind for individual instances; you will think of old men who are preparing themselves at that very hour for a political career, or for travel, or for business. And what is baser than getting ready to live when you are already old? ([Location 594](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=594)) > We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it. Our too great love for it makes us restless with fears, burdens us with cares, and exposes us to insults. ([Location 600](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=600)) > Let us, however, in so far as we can, avoid discomforts as well as dangers, and withdraw to safe ground, by thinking continually how we may repel all objects of fear. If I am not mistaken, there are three main classes of these: we fear want, we fear sickness, and we fear the troubles which result from the violence of the stronger. ([Location 604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=604)) > Let us, therefore, see to it that we abstain from giving offence. ([Location 617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=617)) > It is burdensome to keep the friendship of all such persons; it is enough not to make enemies of them. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=620)) > So the wise man will never provoke the anger of those in power; nay, he will even turn his course, precisely as he would turn from a storm if he were steering a ship. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=620)) > We should therefore look about us, and see how we may protect ourselves from the mob. And first of all, we should have no cravings like theirs; ([Location 627](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=627)) > Let there be as little booty as possible on your person. ([Location 628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=628)) > Next, we must follow the old adage and avoid three things with special care: hatred, jealousy, and scorn. ([Location 631](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=631)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Philosophy itself, however should be practised with calmness and moderation. ([Location 638](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=638)) > Why, Cato, should you take sides in that dispute? It is no business of yours; a tyrant is being selected. What does it concern you who conquers? The better man may win; but the winner is bound to be the worse man." ([Location 643](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=643)) > I beg you to consider those Stoics who, shut out from public life, have withdrawn into privacy for the purpose of improving men's existence and framing laws for the human race without incurring the displeasure of those in power. The wise man will not upset the customs of the people, nor will he invite the attention of the populace by any novel ways of living. ([Location 648](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=648)) > And finally, the wise man regards the reason for all his actions, but not the results. The beginning is in our own power; fortune decides the issue, but I do not allow her to pass sentence upon myself. ([Location 655](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=655)) > "He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most." ([Location 659](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=659)) - Note: Epicurus, or Metrodorus, > The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: "If you are well, it is well; I also am well." Persons like ourselves would do well to say. "If you are studying philosophy, it is well." For this is just what "being well" means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong. ([Location 665](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=665)) > This, then, is the sort of health you should primarily cultivate; the other kind of health comes second, and will involve little effort, if you wish to be well physically. ([Location 668](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=668)) > Accordingly, limit the flesh as much as possible, and allow free play to the spirit. ([Location 672](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=672)) > Besides, they must take orders from slaves of the vilest stamp, – men who alternate between the oil-flask and the flagon, whose day passes satisfactorily if they have got up a good perspiration and quaffed, to make good what they have lost in sweat, huge draughts of liquor which will sink deeper because of their fasting. Drinking and sweating, – it's the life of a dyspeptic! ([Location 674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=674)) > But whatever you do, come back soon from body to mind. The mind must be exercised both day and night, for it is nourished by moderate labour. and this form of exercise need not be hampered by cold or hot weather, or even by old age. ([Location 680](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=680)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "The fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future." ([Location 695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=695)) - Note: "And what sort of life do you think is meant by the fool's life? That of Baba and Isio? No; he means our own, for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not to be dependent upon Fortune. Therefore continually remind yourself, Lucilius, how many ambitions you have attained. When you see many ahead of you, think how many are behind! If you would thank the gods, and be grateful for your past life, you should contemplate how many men you have outstripped. But what have you to do with the others? You have outstripped yourself." Original quote from Epicurus quoted in Seneca > Philosophy is no trick to catch the public; it is not devised for show. It is a matter, not of words, but of facts. It is not pursued in order that the day may yield some amusement before it is spent, or that our leisure may be relieved of a tedium that irks us. It moulds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone; it sits at the helm and directs our course as we waver amid uncertainties. Without it, no one can live fearlessly or in peace of mind. Countless things that happen every hour call for advice; and such advice is to be sought in philosophy. ([Location 716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=716)) > Epicurus: "If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich." ([Location 732](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=732)) > Epicurus: "The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles." ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=780)) > Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition that I feared?" ([Location 797](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=797)) > There is no reason, however, why you should think that you are doing anything great; for you will merely be doing what many thousands of slaves and many thousands of poor men are doing every day. ([Location 808](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=808)) > For though water, barley-meal, and crusts of barley-bread, are not a cheerful diet, yet it is the highest kind of Pleasure to be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food, and to have reduced one's needs to that modicum which no unfairness of Fortune can snatch away. ([Location 817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=817)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Dare, O my friend, to scorn the sight of wealth, And mould thyself to kinship with thy God. ([Location 823](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=823)) - Note: Seneca > I shall keep watching myself continually, and – a most useful habit – shall review each day. For this is what makes us wicked: that no one of us looks back over his own life. Our thoughts are devoted only to what we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future always depend on the past. ([Location 4265](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4265)) > What glory is there in carrying much liquor? When you have won the prize, and the other banqueters, sprawling asleep or vomiting, have declined your challenge to still other toasts; when you are the last survivor of the revels; when you have vanquished every one by your magnificent show of prowess and there is no man who has proved himself of so great capacity as you, you are vanquished by the cask. ([Location 4346](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4346)) > Therefore you should state why the wise man ought not to get drunk. Explain by facts, and not by mere words, the hideousness of the thing, and its haunting evils. Do that which is easiest of all – namely, demonstrate that what men call pleasures are punishments as soon as they have exceeded due bounds. ([Location 4357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4357)) # Letters From a Stoic  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Seneca]] - Full Title:: Letters From a Stoic - Category: #books ## Highlights > Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius – set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words, – that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach. ([Location 129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=129)) > Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands. ([Location 135](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=135)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. ([Location 137](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=137)) > What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity, – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay. ([Location 138](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=138)) > For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask. Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the quality is vile. Farewell. ([Location 146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=146)) > Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. ([Location 160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=160)) > Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy's camp, – not as a deserter, but as a scout. He says: "Contented poverty is an honourable estate." ([Location 163](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=163)) > Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=164)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough. ([Location 166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=166)) > All you need to do is to advance; you will thus understand that some things are less to be dreaded, precisely because they inspire us with great fear. No evil is great which is the last evil of all. Death arrives; it would be a thing to dread, if it could remain with you. But death must either not come at all, or else must come and pass away. ([Location 199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=199)) > Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=207)) > For this reason, make life as a whole agreeable to yourself by banishing all worry about it. No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed. Therefore, encourage and toughen your spirit against the mishaps that afflict even the most powerful. ([Location 208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=208)) > No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him. ([Location 212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=212)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Therefore I declare to you: he is lord of your life that scorns his own. ([Location 215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=215)) > It, too, is culled from another man's Garden: "Poverty brought into conformity with the law of nature, is great wealth." Do you know what limits that law of nature ordains for us? ([Location 222](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=222)) > Inwardly, we ought to be different in all respects, but our exterior should conform to society. Do not wear too fine, nor yet too frowzy, a toga. One needs no silver plate, encrusted and embossed in solid gold; but we should not believe the lack of silver and gold to be proof of the simple life. Let us try to maintain a higher standard of life than that of the multitude, but not a contrary standard; otherwise, we shall frighten away and repel the very persons whom we are trying to improve. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=234)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Philosophy calls for plain living, but not for penance; and we may perfectly well be plain and neat at the same time. This is the mean of which I approve; our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of a sage and the ways of the world at large; all men should admire it, but they should understand it also. ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=243)) > let men find that we are unlike the common herd, if they look closely. If they visit us at home, they should admire us, rather than our household appointments. ([Location 246](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=246)) > It is the sign of an unstable mind not to be able to endure riches. ([Location 248](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=248)) > Hecato that the limiting of desires helps also to cure fears: "Cease to hope," he says, "and you will cease to fear." ([Location 249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=249)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But the chief cause of both these ills is that we do not adapt ourselves to the present, but send our thoughts a long way ahead. And so foresight, the noblest blessing of the human race, becomes perverted. ([Location 253](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=253)) > Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself. And if wisdom were given me under the express condition that it must be kept hidden and not uttered, I should refuse it. No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it. ([Location 268](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=268)) > Hecato; it is these words: "What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself." ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=279)) > But nothing is so damaging to good character as the habit of lounging at the games; for then it is that vice steals subtly upon one through the avenue of pleasure. What do you think I mean? I mean that I come home more greedy, more ambitious, more voluptuous, and even more cruel and inhuman, because I have been among human beings. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=288)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > But both courses are to be avoided; you should not copy the bad simply because they are many, nor should you hate the many because they are unlike you. Withdraw into yourself, as far as you can. Associate with those who will make a better man of you. Welcome those whom you yourself can improve. The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. ([Location 309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=309)) > Democritus says: "One man means as much to me as a multitude, and a multitude only as much as one man." ([Location 318](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=318)) > Epicurus, written to one of the partners of his studies: "I write this not for the many, but for you; each of us is enough of an audience for the other." ([Location 321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=321)) > Many men praise you; but have you any reason for being pleased with yourself, if you are a person whom the many can understand? ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=322)) > Your good qualities should face inwards. ([Location 323](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=323)) > I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially from my own affairs; ([Location 329](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=329)) > I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. ([Location 332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=332)) > And any man among you who wishes to live a life of safety will avoid, to the utmost of his power, these limed twigs of her favour, by which we mortals, most wretched in this respect also, are deceived; ([Location 334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=334)) - Note: Lined twigs - sticky birdlime spread on a twig to ensnare a bird. Birdlime is any number of natural sticky products produced by the ancients. > "Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life – that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind. Eat merely to relieve your hunger; drink merely to quench your thirst; dress merely to keep out the cold; house yourself merely as a protection against personal discomfort. It matters little whether the house be built of turf, or of variously coloured imported marble; understand that a man is sheltered just as well by a thatch as by a roof of gold. Despise everything that useless toil creates as an ornament and an object of beauty. And reflect that nothing except the soul is worthy of wonder; for to the soul, if it be great, naught is great." ([Location 339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=339)) > conning Epicurus. I read to-day, in his works, the following sentence: "If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy." ([Location 348](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=348)) > Still alien is whatever you have gained/By coveting I recall that you yourself expressed this idea much more happily and concisely: What Chance has made yours is not really yours. And a third, spoken by you still more happily, shall not be omitted: The good that could be given, can be removed. I shall not charge this up to the expense account, because I have given it to you from your own stock. Farewell. ([Location 356](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=356)) - Note: Seneca reciting back Lucilius' lines to him > In this sense the wise man is self-sufficient, that he can do without friends, not that he desires to do without them. When I say "can," I mean this: he endures the loss of a friend with equanimity. ([Location 372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=372)) > Hecato, says: "I can show you a philtre, compounded without drugs, herbs, or any witch's incantation: 'If you would be loved, love.'" Now there is great pleasure, not only in maintaining old and established friendships, but also in beginning and acquiring new ones. ([Location 376](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=376)) > The philosopher Attalus used to say: "It is more pleasant to make than to keep a friend, as it is more pleasant to the artist to paint than to have finished painting." When one is busy and absorbed in one's work, the very absorption affords great delight; but when one has withdrawn one's hand from the completed masterpiece, the pleasure is not so keen. ([Location 379](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=379)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Henceforth it is the fruits of his art that he enjoys; it was the art itself that he enjoyed while he was painting. ([Location 382](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=382)) > The end will be like the beginning: he has made friends with one who might assist him out of bondage; at the first rattle of the chain such a friend will desert him. These are the so-called "fair-weather" friendships; one who is chosen for the sake of utility will be satisfactory only so long as he is useful. ([Location 387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=387)) > He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays. ([Location 392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=392)) > For what purpose, then, do I make a man my friend? In order to have someone for whom I may die, whom I may follow into exile, against whose death I may stake my own life, and pay the pledge, too. ([Location 393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=393)) > "The wise man is self-sufficient." This phrase, my dear Lucilius, is incorrectly explained by many; for they withdraw the wise man from the world, and force him to dwell within his own skin. But we must mark with care what this sentence signifies and how far it applies; the wise man is sufficient unto himself for a happy existence, but not for mere existence. For he needs many helps towards mere existence; but for a happy existence he needs only a sound and upright soul, one that despises Fortune. ([Location 402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=402)) > I should like also to state to you one of the distinctions of Chrysippus, who declares that the wise man is in want of nothing, and yet needs many things. "On the other hand," he says, "nothing is needed by the fool, for he does not understand how to use anything, but he is in want of everything." ([Location 406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=406)) > People may say: "But what sort of existence will the wise man have, if he be left friendless when thrown into prison, or when stranded in some foreign nation, or when delayed on a long voyage, or when out upon a lonely shore?" His life will be like that of Jupiter, who, amid the dissolution of the world, when the gods are confounded together and Nature rests for a space from her work, can retire into himself and give himself over to his own thoughts. ([Location 412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=412)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > In some such way as this the sage will act; he will retreat into himself, and live with himself. As long as he is allowed to order his affairs according to his judgment, he is self-sufficient – and marries a wife; he is self-sufficient – and brings up children; he is self-sufficient – and yet could not live if he had to live without the society of man. ([Location 415](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=415)) > For Stilbo, after his country was captured and his children and his wife lost, as he emerged from the general desolation alone and yet happy, spoke as follows to Demetrius, called Sacker of Cities because of the destruction he brought upon them, in answer to the question whether he had lost anything: "I have all my goods with me!" There is a brave and stout-hearted man for you! The enemy conquered, but Stilbo conquered his conqueror. "I have lost nothing!" Aye, he forced Demetrius to wonder whether he himself had conquered after all. "My goods are all with me!" In other words, he deemed nothing that might be taken from him to be a good. ([Location 421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=421)) > Epicurus himself, the reviler of Stilbo, spoke similar language; put it down to my credit, though I have already wiped out my debt for the present day. He says: "Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the whole world." ([Location 430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=430)) > "A man may rule the world and still be unhappy, if he does not feel that he is supremely happy." ([Location 433](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=433)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca > Unblest is he who thinks himself unblest. ([Location 434](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=434)) - Note: Seneca > Athenodorus: "Know that thou art freed from all desires when thou hast reached such a point that thou prayest to God for nothing except what thou canst pray for openly." ([Location 455](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=455)) > "Live among men as if God beheld you; speak with God as if men were listening"? ([Location 458](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=458)) - Note: Seneca > "Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them." Such, my dear Lucilius, is the counsel of Epicurus; he has quite properly given us a guardian and an attendant. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=482)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Stoic 3rd eye > Choose therefore a Cato; or, if Cato seems too severe a model, choose some Laelius, a gentler spirit. Choose a master whose life, conversation, and soul-expressing face have satisfied you; picture him always to yourself as your protector or your pattern. For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler. ([Location 487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=487)) - Note: Stoic 3rd eye > Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it. ([Location 502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=502)) > Life is most delightful when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline. And I myself believe that the period which stands, so to speak, on the edge of the roof, possesses pleasures of its own. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=504)) > How comforting it is to have tired out one's appetites, and to have done with them! ([Location 506](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=506)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "But," you say, "it is a nuisance to be looking death in the face!" Death, however, should be looked in the face by young and old alike. ([Location 507](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=507)) > Moreover, no one is so old that it would be improper for him to hope for another day of existence. And one day, mind you, is a stage on life's journey. ([Location 508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=508)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Our span of life is divided into parts; it consists of large circles enclosing smaller. One circle embraces and bounds the rest; it reaches from birth to the last day of existence. The next circle limits the period of our young manhood. The third confines all of childhood in its circumference. Again, there is, in a class by itself, the year; it contains within itself all the divisions of time by the multiplication of which we get the total of life. The month is bounded by a narrower ring. The smallest circle of all is the day; but even a day has its beginning and its ending, its sunrise and its sunset. Hence Heraclitus, whose obscure style gave him his surname, remarked: "One day is equal to every day." ([Location 510](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=510)) > I have lived; the course which Fortune set for me/Is finished. ([Location 523](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=523)) > And if God is pleased to add another day, we should welcome it with glad hearts. That man is happiest, and is secure in his own possession of himself, who can await the morrow without apprehension. When a man has said: "I have lived!", every morning he arises he receives a bonus. ([Location 524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=524)) > "It is wrong to live under constraint; but no man is constrained to live under constraint." ([Location 527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=527)) - Note: Epicurus > There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. ([Location 543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=543)) > What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come. ([Location 546](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=546)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow. ([Location 547](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=547)) > Do me the favour, when men surround you and try to talk you into believing that you are unhappy, to consider not what you hear but what you yourself feel, and to take counsel with your feelings and question yourself independently, because you know your own affairs better than anyone else does. ([Location 552](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=552)) > First of all, consider whether your proofs of future trouble are sure. For it is more often the case that we are troubled by our apprehensions, and that we are mocked by that mocker, rumour, which is wont to settle wars, but much more often settles individuals. ([Location 560](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=560)) > Yes, my dear Lucilius; we agree too quickly with what people say. We do not put to the test those things which cause our fear; we do not examine into them; ([Location 562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=562)) > The mind at times fashions for itself false shapes of evil when there are no signs that point to any 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. ([Location 573](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=573)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Accordingly, weigh carefully your hopes as well as your fears, and whenever all the elements are in doubt, decide in your own favour; believe what you prefer. And if fear wins a majority of the votes, incline in the other direction anyhow, and cease to harass your soul, reflecting continually that most mortals, even when no troubles are actually at hand or are certainly to be expected in the future, become excited and disquieted. ([Location 579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=579)) > We let ourselves drift with every breeze; we are frightened at uncertainties, just as if they were certain. We observe no moderation. The slightest thing turns the scales and throws us forthwith into a panic. ([Location 583](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=583)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > I am exhorting you far too long, since you need reminding rather than exhortation. ([Location 588](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=588)) > "The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live." ([Location 591](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=591)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Seneca > Look within your own mind for individual instances; you will think of old men who are preparing themselves at that very hour for a political career, or for travel, or for business. And what is baser than getting ready to live when you are already old? ([Location 594](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=594)) > We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it. Our too great love for it makes us restless with fears, burdens us with cares, and exposes us to insults. ([Location 600](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=600)) > Let us, however, in so far as we can, avoid discomforts as well as dangers, and withdraw to safe ground, by thinking continually how we may repel all objects of fear. If I am not mistaken, there are three main classes of these: we fear want, we fear sickness, and we fear the troubles which result from the violence of the stronger. ([Location 604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=604)) > Let us, therefore, see to it that we abstain from giving offence. ([Location 617](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=617)) > It is burdensome to keep the friendship of all such persons; it is enough not to make enemies of them. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=620)) > So the wise man will never provoke the anger of those in power; nay, he will even turn his course, precisely as he would turn from a storm if he were steering a ship. ([Location 620](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=620)) > We should therefore look about us, and see how we may protect ourselves from the mob. And first of all, we should have no cravings like theirs; ([Location 627](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=627)) > Let there be as little booty as possible on your person. ([Location 628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=628)) > Next, we must follow the old adage and avoid three things with special care: hatred, jealousy, and scorn. ([Location 631](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=631)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Philosophy itself, however should be practised with calmness and moderation. ([Location 638](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=638)) > Why, Cato, should you take sides in that dispute? It is no business of yours; a tyrant is being selected. What does it concern you who conquers? The better man may win; but the winner is bound to be the worse man." ([Location 643](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=643)) > I beg you to consider those Stoics who, shut out from public life, have withdrawn into privacy for the purpose of improving men's existence and framing laws for the human race without incurring the displeasure of those in power. The wise man will not upset the customs of the people, nor will he invite the attention of the populace by any novel ways of living. ([Location 648](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=648)) > And finally, the wise man regards the reason for all his actions, but not the results. The beginning is in our own power; fortune decides the issue, but I do not allow her to pass sentence upon myself. ([Location 655](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=655)) > "He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most." ([Location 659](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=659)) - Note: Epicurus, or Metrodorus, > The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: "If you are well, it is well; I also am well." Persons like ourselves would do well to say. "If you are studying philosophy, it is well." For this is just what "being well" means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong. ([Location 665](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=665)) > This, then, is the sort of health you should primarily cultivate; the other kind of health comes second, and will involve little effort, if you wish to be well physically. ([Location 668](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=668)) > Accordingly, limit the flesh as much as possible, and allow free play to the spirit. ([Location 672](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=672)) > Besides, they must take orders from slaves of the vilest stamp, – men who alternate between the oil-flask and the flagon, whose day passes satisfactorily if they have got up a good perspiration and quaffed, to make good what they have lost in sweat, huge draughts of liquor which will sink deeper because of their fasting. Drinking and sweating, – it's the life of a dyspeptic! ([Location 674](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=674)) > But whatever you do, come back soon from body to mind. The mind must be exercised both day and night, for it is nourished by moderate labour. and this form of exercise need not be hampered by cold or hot weather, or even by old age. ([Location 680](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=680)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "The fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future." ([Location 695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=695)) - Note: "And what sort of life do you think is meant by the fool's life? That of Baba and Isio? No; he means our own, for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not to be dependent upon Fortune. Therefore continually remind yourself, Lucilius, how many ambitions you have attained. When you see many ahead of you, think how many are behind! If you would thank the gods, and be grateful for your past life, you should contemplate how many men you have outstripped. But what have you to do with the others? You have outstripped yourself." Original quote from Epicurus quoted in Seneca > Philosophy is no trick to catch the public; it is not devised for show. It is a matter, not of words, but of facts. It is not pursued in order that the day may yield some amusement before it is spent, or that our leisure may be relieved of a tedium that irks us. It moulds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone; it sits at the helm and directs our course as we waver amid uncertainties. Without it, no one can live fearlessly or in peace of mind. Countless things that happen every hour call for advice; and such advice is to be sought in philosophy. ([Location 716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=716)) > Epicurus: "If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich." ([Location 732](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=732)) > Epicurus: "The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles." ([Location 780](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=780)) > Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition that I feared?" ([Location 797](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=797)) > There is no reason, however, why you should think that you are doing anything great; for you will merely be doing what many thousands of slaves and many thousands of poor men are doing every day. ([Location 808](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=808)) > For though water, barley-meal, and crusts of barley-bread, are not a cheerful diet, yet it is the highest kind of Pleasure to be able to derive pleasure from this sort of food, and to have reduced one's needs to that modicum which no unfairness of Fortune can snatch away. ([Location 817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=817)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Dare, O my friend, to scorn the sight of wealth, And mould thyself to kinship with thy God. ([Location 823](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=823)) - Note: Seneca > I shall keep watching myself continually, and – a most useful habit – shall review each day. For this is what makes us wicked: that no one of us looks back over his own life. Our thoughts are devoted only to what we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future always depend on the past. ([Location 4265](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4265)) > What glory is there in carrying much liquor? When you have won the prize, and the other banqueters, sprawling asleep or vomiting, have declined your challenge to still other toasts; when you are the last survivor of the revels; when you have vanquished every one by your magnificent show of prowess and there is no man who has proved himself of so great capacity as you, you are vanquished by the cask. ([Location 4346](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4346)) > Therefore you should state why the wise man ought not to get drunk. Explain by facts, and not by mere words, the hideousness of the thing, and its haunting evils. Do that which is easiest of all – namely, demonstrate that what men call pleasures are punishments as soon as they have exceeded due bounds. ([Location 4357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00OVA77JW&location=4357))