“They are slaves,” people declare. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare thyself. Seneca (On The Shortness of Life – Chapter II) If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope. For who can be “great” in that which is puny? Here, Seneca uses the same observation that. Your email address will not be published. Fortune has taken away, but Fortune has given. It is the quality of a great soul to scorn great things and to prefer that which is ordinary rather than that which is too great. Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. You will be bringing to it your own. Such a man has in great measure come to understand the universe. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. If one doesn't know his mistakes, he won't want to correct them. But he withstood her, on all occasions, and in his last moments, at the point of death, showed that a brave man can live in spite of Fortune, can die in spite of her. Men have endured hunger when their towns were besieged, and what other reward for their endurance did they obtain than that they did not fall under the conqueror’s power? When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. ARGUMENT. Seneca (The Madness of Hercules), If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living. A great part of mankind, when about to sail, do not think of a storm. Seneca mentioned his struggles with asthma and illnesses in another letter: My ill-health had allowed me a long furlough, when suddenly it resumed the attack. Am I free from bonds now? He is ready for either outcome: if it brings goods, he controls them; if evils, he conquers them. No one ever saw Cato change, no matter how often the state changed: he kept himself the same in all circumstances—in the praetorship, in defeat, under accusation, in his province, on the platform, in the army, in death. A sword by itself does not slay; it is merely the weapon used by the slayer. Whatever can happen at any time can happen today. He who does not wish to die cannot have wished to live. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind. Things ’twas hard to bear ’tis pleasant to recall. Seneca (Natural Questions), That man lives badly who does not know how to die well. What then? Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary. Neither of these periods of time belongs to you. Who indeed could breathe his last for long? Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. Don't ask for what you'll wish you hadn't got. Toward good men God has the mind of a father, he cherishes for them a manly love, and he says, "Let them be harassed by toil, by suffering, by losses, in order that they may gather true strength." What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to another? I have begun to be a friend to myself.” That was indeed agreat benefit; such a person can never be alone. Therefore, my dear Lucilius, begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life. We cannot yet bear heaven’s light except at intervals; look unfalteringly, then, to that decisive hour which is the body’s last but not the soul’s. As our acts and our thoughts are, so will our lives be. But he has no fear; unconquered he looks down from a lofty height upon his sufferings. Seneca (Moral Letters to Lucilius – Letter 78). Press on, therefore, as you have begun; perhaps you will be led to perfection, or to a point which you alone understand is still short of perfection. You see also that man can be free from fear of those above him in rank: for Cato attacked Caesar and Pompey simultaneously, at a time when none dared fall foul of the one without endeavouring to oblige the other. “Slaves!” No, they are unpretentious friends. And what is freedom, you ask? I forbid you to be cast down or depressed. And we cannot change this order of things; but what we can do is to acquire stout hearts, worthy of good men, thereby courageously enduring chance and placing ourselves in harmony with Nature. Say to me when I lie down to sleep: “You may not wake again!” And when I have waked: “You may not go to sleep again!” Say to me when I go forth from my house: “You may not return!” And when I return: “You may never go forth again!”. Seneca is known for having suffered from poor health throughout his life, especially from asthma. That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away. thesis in history which explores how Buddhist and Hindu texts were first properly translated and introduced to the western world in the late 18th and 19th century. Born in 4 BCE in Corduba in the Roman province of Hispania Baetica (southern Spain), Seneca was the son of Helvia (mother) and his father Seneca the Elder (54 BCE – c. 39 ACE), who was a noted rhetorician and writer himself and authored the works “Controversiae” and who lived through the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula.
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