Seneca Letters From a Stoic

Letter 80: On worldly deceptions

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:59:13 +0000

Today I have some free time, thanks not so much to myself as to the games, which have attracted all the bores to the boxing-match. No one will interrupt me or disturb the train of my thoughts, which go ahead more boldly as the result of my very confidence. My door has not been continually creaking […]

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Letter 79: On the rewards of scientific discovery

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 14:35:45 +0000

I have been awaiting a letter from you, that you might inform me what new matter was revealed to you during your trip around Sicily, and especially that you might give me further information regarding Charybdis itself. I know very well that Scylla is a rock – and indeed a rock not dreaded by mariners; […]

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Letter 78: On the healing power of the mind

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 14:19:22 +0000

That you are frequently troubled by the snuffling of catarrh and by short attacks of fever which follow after long and chronic catarrhal seizures, I am sorry to hear; particularly because I have experienced this sort of illness myself and scorned it in its early stages. For when I was still young, I could put […]

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Letter 77: On taking one’s own life

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 16:34:45 +0000

Suddenly there came into our view to-day the “Alexandrian” ships, – I mean those which are usually sent ahead to announce the coming of the fleet; they are called “mail-boats.” The Campanians are glad to see them; all the rabble of Puteoli stand on the docks, and can recognize the “Alexandrian” boats, no matter how great […]

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Letter 76: On learning wisdom in old age

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Sun, 27 Sep 2020 16:20:53 +0000

You have been threatening me with your enmity, if I do not keep you informed about all my daily actions. But see, now, upon what frank terms you and I live: for I shall confide even the following fact to your ears. I have been hearing the lectures of a philosopher; four days have already […]

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Letter 75: On the diseases of the soul

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 15:41:15 +0000

You have been complaining that my letters to you are rather carelessly written. Now who talks carefully unless he also desires to talk affectedly? I prefer that my letters should be just what my conversation would be if you and I were sitting in one another’s company or taking walks together, spontaneous and easy; for […]

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Letter 74: On virtue as a refuge from worldly distractions

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 09:32:37 +0000

Your letter has given me pleasure and has roused me from sluggishness. It has also prompted my memory, which has been for some time slack and nerveless. You are right, of course, my dear Lucilius, in deeming the chief means of attaining the happy life to consist in the belief that the only good lies […]

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Letter 73: On philosophers and kings

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:02:30 +0000

It seems to me erroneous to believe that those who have loyally dedicated themselves to philosophy are stubborn and rebellious, scorners of magistrates or kings or of those who control the administration of public affairs. For, on the contrary, no class of man is so popular with the philosopher as the ruler is; and rightly […]

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Letter 72: On business as the enemy of philosophy

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:06:41 +0000

The subject concerning which you question me was once clear to my mind, and required no thought, so thoroughly had I mastered it. But I have not tested my memory of it for some time, and therefore it does not readily come back to me. I feel that I have suffered the fate of a […]

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Letter 71: On the supreme good

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 21:25:20 +0000

You are continually referring special questions to me, forgetting that a vast stretch of sea sunders us. Since, however, the value of advice depends mostly on the time when it is given, it must necessarily result that by the time my opinion on certain matters reaches you, the opposite opinion is the better. For advice […]

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