Seneca
Stoicism written by a very rich man
4 BC–65 AD · Stoicism
Seneca was Nero's tutor, one of the wealthiest men in Rome, and a Stoic — a combination his critics have enjoyed for two thousand years. The letters to Lucilius are the best of him: practical, unhurried, and startlingly modern about money, friendship, grief and the way we squander time. Nero eventually ordered him to kill himself, and by every account he did it well.
Read when you are busy in a way that has stopped feeling like progress
- 01
He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4: On the Terrors of Death · 65
- 02
No man can swim ashore and take his baggage with him.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 22: On the Futility of Half-Way Measures · 65
- 03
Some men have left off living before they have begun.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 23: On the True Joy Which Comes from Philosophy · 65
- 04
Associate with those who will make a better man of you.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 7: On Crowds · 65
- 05
No fear is so ruinous and so uncontrollable as panic fear.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13: On Groundless Fears · 65
- 06
It is equally faulty to trust everyone and to trust no one.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 3: On True and False Friendship · 65
- 07
No good thing is pleasant to possess, without friends to share it.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 6: On Sharing Knowledge · 65
- 08
No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4: On the Terrors of Death · 65
- 09
There is only one chain which binds us to life, and that is the love of life.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 26: On Old Age and Death · 65
- 10
He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 9: On Philosophy and Friendship · 65
- 11
There are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 22: On the Futility of Half-Way Measures · 65
- 12
When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 3: On True and False Friendship · 65
- 13
The brave and wise man should not beat a hasty retreat from life; he should make a becoming exit.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 24: On Despising Death · 65
- 14
No prizefighter can go with high spirits into the strife if he has never been beaten black and blue.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13: On Groundless Fears · 65
- 15
When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2: On Discursiveness in Reading · 65
