# Moral Letters to Lucilius Vol. 3  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Lucius Annaeus Seneca]] - Full Title:: Moral Letters to Lucilius Vol. 3 - Category: #books ## Highlights > Similarly, when something blinds a man's soul and hinders it from seeing a line of duty clearly, there is no use in advising him: 'Live thus and so with your father, thus and so with your wife.' For precepts will be of no avail while the mind is clouded with error; only when the cloud is dispersed will it be clear what one's duty is in each case. ([Location 81](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=81)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Nothing will ever happen to me that I shall receive with ill humour or with a wry face. I shall pay up all my taxes willingly. Now all the things which cause us to groan or recoil, are part of the tax of life – things, my dear Lucilius, which you should never hope and never seek to escape. ([Location 673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=673)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It was disease of the bladder that made you apprehensive; downcast letters came from you; you were continually getting worse; I will touch the truth more closely, and say that you feared for your life. But come, did you not know, when you prayed for long life, that this was what you were praying for? A long life includes all these troubles, just as a long journey includes dust and mud and rain. ([Location 675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=675)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Deny, now, if you can, that Nature is very generous in making death inevitable. 15. Many men have been prepared to enter upon still more shameful bargains: to betray friends in order to live longer themselves, or voluntarily to debase their children and so enjoy the light of day which is witness of all their sins. We must get rid of this craving for life, and learn that it makes no difference when your suffering comes, because at some time you are bound to suffer. The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long. Farewell. ([Location 1056](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1056)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Survey everything that lies about you, as if it were luggage in a guest-chamber: you must travel on. Nature strips you as bare at your departure as at your entrance. ([Location 1150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1150)) > You may take away no more than you brought in; what is more, you must throw away the major portion of that which you brought with you into life: you will be stripped of the very skin which covers you – that which has been your last protection; you will be stripped of the flesh, and lose the blood which is suffuses and circulated through your body; you will be stripped of bones and sinews, the framework of these transitory and feeble parts. ([Location 1151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1151)) > That day, which you fear as being the end of all things, is the birthday of your eternity. Lay aside your burden – why delay? – just as if you had not previously left the body which was your hiding-place! You cling to your burden, you struggle; at your birth also great effort was necessary on your mother's part to set you free. You weep and wail; and yet this very weeping happens at birth also; but then it was to be excused – for you came into the world wholly ignorant and inexperienced. When you left the warm and cherishing protection of your mother's womb, a freer air breathed into your face; then you winced at the touch of a rough hand, and you looked in amaze at unfamiliar objects, still delicate and ignorant of all things. ([Location 1154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1154)) > But now it is no new thing for you to be sundered from that of which you have previously been a part; let go your already useless limbs with resignation and dispense with that body in which you have dwelt for so long. It will be torn asunder, buried out of sight, and wasted away. ([Location 1160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1160)) > For one must indulge genuine emotions; sometimes, even in spite of weighty reasons, the breath of life must be called back and kept at our very lips even at the price of great suffering, for the sake of those whom we hold dear; because the good man should not live as long as it pleases him, but as long as he ought. He who does not value his wife, or his friend, highly enough to linger longer in life – he who obstinately persists in dying is a voluptuary. ([Location 1208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1208)) > Reflect on the things which goad man into destroying man: you will find that they are hope, envy, hatred, fear, and contempt. ([Location 1342](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1342)) > My tardiness in answering your letter was not due to press of business. Do not listen to that sort of excuse; I am at liberty, and so is anyone else who wishes to be at liberty. No man is at the mercy of affairs. He gets entangled in them of his own accord, and then flatters himself that being busy is a proof of happiness. ([Location 1370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1370)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Does one wish to die? Let the mind be prepared to meet everything; let it know that it has reached the heights round which the thunder plays. Let it know that it has arrived where – Grief and avenging Care have set their couch, And pallid sickness dwells, and drear Old Age.[160] With such messmates must you spend your days. Avoid them you cannot, but despise them you can. And you will despise them, if you often take thought and anticipate the future. ([Location 1414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1414)) > Everyone approaches courageously a danger which he has prepared himself to meet long before, and withstands even hardships if he has previously practised how to meet them. But, contrariwise, the unprepared are panic-stricken even at the most trifling things. We must see to it that nothing shall come upon us unforeseen. And since things are all the more serious when they are unfamiliar, continual reflection will give you the power, no matter what the evil may be, not to play the unschooled boy. ([Location 1419](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1419)) > And an equal law consists, not of that which all have experienced, but of that which is laid down for all. Be sure to prescribe for your mind this sense of equity; we should pay without complaint the tax of our mortality. ([Location 1427](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1427)) > That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure, and to attend uncomplainingly upon the God under whose guidance everything progresses; for it is a bad soldier who grumbles when following his commander. 10. For this reason we should welcome our orders with energy and vigour, nor should we cease to follow the natural course of this most beautiful universe, into which all our future sufferings are woven. ([Location 1436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1436)) > Cicero: 11. Lead me, O Master of the lofty heavens, My Father, whithersoever thou shalt wish. I shall not falter, but obey with speed. And though I would not, I shall go, and suffer, In sin and sorrow what I might have done In noble virtue. Aye, the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.[161] ([Location 1441](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1441)) > Of course I know such men. There are indeed persevering gentlemen who stick at it; I do not call them pupils of the wise, but merely "squatters."[164] 6. Certain of them come to hear and not to learn, just as we are attracted to the theatre to satisfy the pleasures of the ear, whether by a speech, or by a song, or by a play. ([Location 1467](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1467)) > 9. The poor lack much; the greedy man lacks all.[167] A greedy man does good to none; he does Most evil to himself.[168] ([Location 1484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1484)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > We talk much about despising money, and we give advice on this subject in the lengthiest of speeches, that mankind may believe true riches to exist in the mind and not in one's bank account, and that the man who adapts himself to his slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum, is the truly rich man; but our minds are struck more effectively when a verse like this is repeated: He needs but little who desires but little. or, He hath his wish, whose wish includeth naught Save that which is enough. ([Location 1493](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1493)) > Other resolutions have been broken, but after all in such a way that, in cases where I ceased to practice abstinence, I have observed a limit which is indeed next door to abstinence; perhaps it is even a little more difficult, because it is easier for the will to cut off certain things utterly than to use them with restraint. ([Location 1518](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1518)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Just as the purest wine flows from the top of the jar and the thickest dregs settle at the bottom; so in our human life, that which is best comes first. Shall we allow other men to quaff the best, and keep the dregs for ourselves? Let this phrase cleave to your soul; you should be satisfied thereby as if it were uttered by an oracle: Each choicest day of hapless human life Flies first. ([Location 1560](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1560)) > A teacher like that can help me no more than a sea-sick pilot can be efficient in a storm. He must hold the tiller when the waves are tossing him; he must wrestle, as it were, with the sea; he must furl his sails when the storm rages; what good is a frightened and vomiting steersman to me? And how much greater, think you, is the storm of life than that which tosses any ship! One must steer, not talk. ([Location 1605](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1605)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Evil men harm evil men; each debases the other by rousing his wrath, by approving his churlishness, and praising his pleasures; bad men are at their worst stage when their faults are most thoroughly intermingled, and their wickedness has been, so to speak, pooled in partnership. ([Location 1622](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1622)) > Conversely, therefore, a good man will help another good man. "How?" you ask. 5. Because he will bring joy to the other, he will strengthen his faith, and from the contemplation of their mutual tranquillity the delight of both will be increased. Moreover they will communicate to each other a knowledge of certain facts; for the wise man is not all-knowing.[186] And even if he were all-knowing, someone might be able to devise and point out short cuts, by which the whole matter is more readily disseminated. ([Location 1624](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1624)) > The wise will help the wise, not, mark you, because of his own strength merely, but because of the strength of the man whom he assists. The latter, it is true, can by himself develop his own parts; nevertheless, even one who is running well is helped by one who cheers him on. ([Location 1628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1628)) > in the meantime, you must know that whether we are allotted to special guardians, or whether we are neglected and consigned to Fortune, you can curse a man with no heavier curse than to pray that he may be at enmity with himself. ([Location 1685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1685)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Apply careful investigation, considering how our affairs actually stand, and not what men say of them; you will then understand that evils are more likely to help us than to harm us. For how often has so-called affliction been the source and the beginning of happiness! How often have privileges which we welcomed with deep thanksgiving built steps for themselves to the top of a precipice, still uplifting men who were already distinguished – just as if they had previously stood in a position whence they could fall in safety! 4. But this very fall has in it nothing evil, if you consider the end,[194] after which nature lays no man lower. The universal limit is near; yes, there is near us the point where the prosperous man is upset, and the point where the unfortunate is set free. It is we ourselves that extend both these limits, lengthening them by our hopes and by our fears. ([Location 1688](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1688)) > Now God, who is the Father of us all, has placed ready to our hands those things which he intended for our own good; he did not wait for any search on our part, and he gave them to us voluntarily. But that which would be injurious, he buried deep in the earth. We can complain of nothing but ourselves; for we have brought to light the materials for our destruction, against the will of Nature, who hid them from us. We have bound over our souls to pleasure, whose service is the source of all evil; we have surrendered ourselves to self-seeking and reputation, and to other aims which are equally idle and useless. ([Location 1717](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1717)) > I shall furnish you with a ready creditor, Cato's famous one, who says:[266] "Borrow from yourself!" No matter how small it is, it will be enough if we can only make up the deficit from our own resources. For, my dear Lucilius, it does not matter whether you crave nothing, or whether you possess something. The important principle in either case is the same – freedom from worry. ([Location 2372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2372)) > But, friend, do you regard a man as poor to whom nothing is wanting? "It is, however," you reply, "thanks to himself and his endurance, and not thanks to his fortune." ([Location 2387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2387)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "But one possesses too little, if one is merely free from cold and hunger and thirst." Jupiter himself however, is no better off. Enough is never too little, and not-enough is never too much. ([Location 2393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2393)) > He, however, who has arranged his affairs according to nature's demands, is free from the fear, as well as from the sensation, of poverty. ([Location 2404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2404)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > but the ideal man, whom we have snatched from the control of the people and of Fortune, is happy inwardly. ([Location 2408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2408)) > There is therefore no advice – and of such advice no one can have too much – which I would rather give you than this: that you should measure all things by the demands of Nature; for these demands can be satisfied either without cost or else very cheaply. Only, do not mix any vices with these demands. Why need you ask how your food should be served, on what sort of table, with what sort of silver, with what well-matched and smooth-faced young servants? Nature demands nothing except mere food. ([Location 2412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2412)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Horace's words are therefore most excellent when he says that it makes no difference to one's thirst in what costly goblet, or with what elaborate state, the water is served. For if you believe it to be of importance how curly-haired your slave is, or how transparent is the cup which he offers you, you are not thirsty. ([Location 2420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2420)) > It is necessary that one grow accustomed to slender fare: because there are many problems of time and place which will cross the path even of the rich man and one equipped for pleasure, and bring him up with a round turn. To have whatsoever he wishes is in no man's power; it is in his power not to wish for what he has not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to him. A great step towards independence is a good-humoured stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment. ([Location 2718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2718)) > "No man is good by chance. Virtue is something which must be learned. Pleasure is low, petty, to be deemed worthless, shared even by dumb animals – the tiniest and meanest of whom fly towards pleasure. Glory is an empty and fleeting thing, lighter than air. Poverty is an evil to no man unless he kick against the goads.[309] Death is not an evil; why need you ask? Death alone is the equal privilege of mankind. Superstition is the misguided idea of a lunatic; it fears those whom it ought to love; it is an outrage upon those whom it worships. For what difference is there between denying the gods and dishonouring them?" ([Location 2775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2775)) # Moral Letters to Lucilius Vol. 3  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Lucius Annaeus Seneca]] - Full Title:: Moral Letters to Lucilius Vol. 3 - Category: #books ## Highlights > Similarly, when something blinds a man's soul and hinders it from seeing a line of duty clearly, there is no use in advising him: 'Live thus and so with your father, thus and so with your wife.' For precepts will be of no avail while the mind is clouded with error; only when the cloud is dispersed will it be clear what one's duty is in each case. ([Location 81](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=81)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Nothing will ever happen to me that I shall receive with ill humour or with a wry face. I shall pay up all my taxes willingly. Now all the things which cause us to groan or recoil, are part of the tax of life – things, my dear Lucilius, which you should never hope and never seek to escape. ([Location 673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=673)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > It was disease of the bladder that made you apprehensive; downcast letters came from you; you were continually getting worse; I will touch the truth more closely, and say that you feared for your life. But come, did you not know, when you prayed for long life, that this was what you were praying for? A long life includes all these troubles, just as a long journey includes dust and mud and rain. ([Location 675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=675)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Deny, now, if you can, that Nature is very generous in making death inevitable. 15. Many men have been prepared to enter upon still more shameful bargains: to betray friends in order to live longer themselves, or voluntarily to debase their children and so enjoy the light of day which is witness of all their sins. We must get rid of this craving for life, and learn that it makes no difference when your suffering comes, because at some time you are bound to suffer. The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live. And often this living nobly means that you cannot live long. Farewell. ([Location 1056](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1056)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Survey everything that lies about you, as if it were luggage in a guest-chamber: you must travel on. Nature strips you as bare at your departure as at your entrance. ([Location 1150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1150)) > You may take away no more than you brought in; what is more, you must throw away the major portion of that which you brought with you into life: you will be stripped of the very skin which covers you – that which has been your last protection; you will be stripped of the flesh, and lose the blood which is suffuses and circulated through your body; you will be stripped of bones and sinews, the framework of these transitory and feeble parts. ([Location 1151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1151)) > That day, which you fear as being the end of all things, is the birthday of your eternity. Lay aside your burden – why delay? – just as if you had not previously left the body which was your hiding-place! You cling to your burden, you struggle; at your birth also great effort was necessary on your mother's part to set you free. You weep and wail; and yet this very weeping happens at birth also; but then it was to be excused – for you came into the world wholly ignorant and inexperienced. When you left the warm and cherishing protection of your mother's womb, a freer air breathed into your face; then you winced at the touch of a rough hand, and you looked in amaze at unfamiliar objects, still delicate and ignorant of all things. ([Location 1154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1154)) > But now it is no new thing for you to be sundered from that of which you have previously been a part; let go your already useless limbs with resignation and dispense with that body in which you have dwelt for so long. It will be torn asunder, buried out of sight, and wasted away. ([Location 1160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1160)) > For one must indulge genuine emotions; sometimes, even in spite of weighty reasons, the breath of life must be called back and kept at our very lips even at the price of great suffering, for the sake of those whom we hold dear; because the good man should not live as long as it pleases him, but as long as he ought. He who does not value his wife, or his friend, highly enough to linger longer in life – he who obstinately persists in dying is a voluptuary. ([Location 1208](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1208)) > Reflect on the things which goad man into destroying man: you will find that they are hope, envy, hatred, fear, and contempt. ([Location 1342](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1342)) > My tardiness in answering your letter was not due to press of business. Do not listen to that sort of excuse; I am at liberty, and so is anyone else who wishes to be at liberty. No man is at the mercy of affairs. He gets entangled in them of his own accord, and then flatters himself that being busy is a proof of happiness. ([Location 1370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1370)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Does one wish to die? Let the mind be prepared to meet everything; let it know that it has reached the heights round which the thunder plays. Let it know that it has arrived where – Grief and avenging Care have set their couch, And pallid sickness dwells, and drear Old Age.[160] With such messmates must you spend your days. Avoid them you cannot, but despise them you can. And you will despise them, if you often take thought and anticipate the future. ([Location 1414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1414)) > Everyone approaches courageously a danger which he has prepared himself to meet long before, and withstands even hardships if he has previously practised how to meet them. But, contrariwise, the unprepared are panic-stricken even at the most trifling things. We must see to it that nothing shall come upon us unforeseen. And since things are all the more serious when they are unfamiliar, continual reflection will give you the power, no matter what the evil may be, not to play the unschooled boy. ([Location 1419](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1419)) > And an equal law consists, not of that which all have experienced, but of that which is laid down for all. Be sure to prescribe for your mind this sense of equity; we should pay without complaint the tax of our mortality. ([Location 1427](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1427)) > That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure, and to attend uncomplainingly upon the God under whose guidance everything progresses; for it is a bad soldier who grumbles when following his commander. 10. For this reason we should welcome our orders with energy and vigour, nor should we cease to follow the natural course of this most beautiful universe, into which all our future sufferings are woven. ([Location 1436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1436)) > Cicero: 11. Lead me, O Master of the lofty heavens, My Father, whithersoever thou shalt wish. I shall not falter, but obey with speed. And though I would not, I shall go, and suffer, In sin and sorrow what I might have done In noble virtue. Aye, the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.[161] ([Location 1441](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1441)) > Of course I know such men. There are indeed persevering gentlemen who stick at it; I do not call them pupils of the wise, but merely "squatters."[164] 6. Certain of them come to hear and not to learn, just as we are attracted to the theatre to satisfy the pleasures of the ear, whether by a speech, or by a song, or by a play. ([Location 1467](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1467)) > 9. The poor lack much; the greedy man lacks all.[167] A greedy man does good to none; he does Most evil to himself.[168] ([Location 1484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1484)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > We talk much about despising money, and we give advice on this subject in the lengthiest of speeches, that mankind may believe true riches to exist in the mind and not in one's bank account, and that the man who adapts himself to his slender means and makes himself wealthy on a little sum, is the truly rich man; but our minds are struck more effectively when a verse like this is repeated: He needs but little who desires but little. or, He hath his wish, whose wish includeth naught Save that which is enough. ([Location 1493](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1493)) > Other resolutions have been broken, but after all in such a way that, in cases where I ceased to practice abstinence, I have observed a limit which is indeed next door to abstinence; perhaps it is even a little more difficult, because it is easier for the will to cut off certain things utterly than to use them with restraint. ([Location 1518](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1518)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Just as the purest wine flows from the top of the jar and the thickest dregs settle at the bottom; so in our human life, that which is best comes first. Shall we allow other men to quaff the best, and keep the dregs for ourselves? Let this phrase cleave to your soul; you should be satisfied thereby as if it were uttered by an oracle: Each choicest day of hapless human life Flies first. ([Location 1560](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1560)) > A teacher like that can help me no more than a sea-sick pilot can be efficient in a storm. He must hold the tiller when the waves are tossing him; he must wrestle, as it were, with the sea; he must furl his sails when the storm rages; what good is a frightened and vomiting steersman to me? And how much greater, think you, is the storm of life than that which tosses any ship! One must steer, not talk. ([Location 1605](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1605)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Evil men harm evil men; each debases the other by rousing his wrath, by approving his churlishness, and praising his pleasures; bad men are at their worst stage when their faults are most thoroughly intermingled, and their wickedness has been, so to speak, pooled in partnership. ([Location 1622](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1622)) > Conversely, therefore, a good man will help another good man. "How?" you ask. 5. Because he will bring joy to the other, he will strengthen his faith, and from the contemplation of their mutual tranquillity the delight of both will be increased. Moreover they will communicate to each other a knowledge of certain facts; for the wise man is not all-knowing.[186] And even if he were all-knowing, someone might be able to devise and point out short cuts, by which the whole matter is more readily disseminated. ([Location 1624](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1624)) > The wise will help the wise, not, mark you, because of his own strength merely, but because of the strength of the man whom he assists. The latter, it is true, can by himself develop his own parts; nevertheless, even one who is running well is helped by one who cheers him on. ([Location 1628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1628)) > in the meantime, you must know that whether we are allotted to special guardians, or whether we are neglected and consigned to Fortune, you can curse a man with no heavier curse than to pray that he may be at enmity with himself. ([Location 1685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1685)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Apply careful investigation, considering how our affairs actually stand, and not what men say of them; you will then understand that evils are more likely to help us than to harm us. For how often has so-called affliction been the source and the beginning of happiness! How often have privileges which we welcomed with deep thanksgiving built steps for themselves to the top of a precipice, still uplifting men who were already distinguished – just as if they had previously stood in a position whence they could fall in safety! 4. But this very fall has in it nothing evil, if you consider the end,[194] after which nature lays no man lower. The universal limit is near; yes, there is near us the point where the prosperous man is upset, and the point where the unfortunate is set free. It is we ourselves that extend both these limits, lengthening them by our hopes and by our fears. ([Location 1688](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1688)) > Now God, who is the Father of us all, has placed ready to our hands those things which he intended for our own good; he did not wait for any search on our part, and he gave them to us voluntarily. But that which would be injurious, he buried deep in the earth. We can complain of nothing but ourselves; for we have brought to light the materials for our destruction, against the will of Nature, who hid them from us. We have bound over our souls to pleasure, whose service is the source of all evil; we have surrendered ourselves to self-seeking and reputation, and to other aims which are equally idle and useless. ([Location 1717](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=1717)) > I shall furnish you with a ready creditor, Cato's famous one, who says:[266] "Borrow from yourself!" No matter how small it is, it will be enough if we can only make up the deficit from our own resources. For, my dear Lucilius, it does not matter whether you crave nothing, or whether you possess something. The important principle in either case is the same – freedom from worry. ([Location 2372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2372)) > But, friend, do you regard a man as poor to whom nothing is wanting? "It is, however," you reply, "thanks to himself and his endurance, and not thanks to his fortune." ([Location 2387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2387)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > "But one possesses too little, if one is merely free from cold and hunger and thirst." Jupiter himself however, is no better off. Enough is never too little, and not-enough is never too much. ([Location 2393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2393)) > He, however, who has arranged his affairs according to nature's demands, is free from the fear, as well as from the sensation, of poverty. ([Location 2404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2404)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > but the ideal man, whom we have snatched from the control of the people and of Fortune, is happy inwardly. ([Location 2408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2408)) > There is therefore no advice – and of such advice no one can have too much – which I would rather give you than this: that you should measure all things by the demands of Nature; for these demands can be satisfied either without cost or else very cheaply. Only, do not mix any vices with these demands. Why need you ask how your food should be served, on what sort of table, with what sort of silver, with what well-matched and smooth-faced young servants? Nature demands nothing except mere food. ([Location 2412](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2412)) - Tags: [[favorite]] > Horace's words are therefore most excellent when he says that it makes no difference to one's thirst in what costly goblet, or with what elaborate state, the water is served. For if you believe it to be of importance how curly-haired your slave is, or how transparent is the cup which he offers you, you are not thirsty. ([Location 2420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2420)) > It is necessary that one grow accustomed to slender fare: because there are many problems of time and place which will cross the path even of the rich man and one equipped for pleasure, and bring him up with a round turn. To have whatsoever he wishes is in no man's power; it is in his power not to wish for what he has not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to him. A great step towards independence is a good-humoured stomach, one that is willing to endure rough treatment. ([Location 2718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2718)) > "No man is good by chance. Virtue is something which must be learned. Pleasure is low, petty, to be deemed worthless, shared even by dumb animals – the tiniest and meanest of whom fly towards pleasure. Glory is an empty and fleeting thing, lighter than air. Poverty is an evil to no man unless he kick against the goads.[309] Death is not an evil; why need you ask? Death alone is the equal privilege of mankind. Superstition is the misguided idea of a lunatic; it fears those whom it ought to love; it is an outrage upon those whom it worships. For what difference is there between denying the gods and dishonouring them?" ([Location 2775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00IX05TP0&location=2775))