Seneca. Moral letters to Lucilius. One letter – one thought
Over the previous month I had read a collection of Seneca's letters to Lucilius and was greatly impressed. In this article I would like to cite one “concentrate” from each letter, in order to encourage someone to familiarize themselves with the original.
Unfortunately, already at the stage of writing the article, I learned that not all the letters were in the paper collection that I was reading. In the article I will only indicate letters that I myself have read. They can be correlated with the complete collection by number or title.
Immediately after reading it, I began to make such excerpts from essay by Paul Graham. 1-2 daily. Everything is recorded in tg channel. Posts on this topic can be found under the tag #pg. I don't force anyone 🙂
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger, was a philosopher, Stoic, and Roman statesman whose ideas about wisdom, justice, and happiness left an indelible mark on the history of thought. One of Seneca's most valuable and popular works is his “Moral Letters to Lucilius”
Questions of life and death, good and evil, moral and immoral – the philosopher explains, offers arguments and invites to dialogue. Seneca’s works are so captivating and addictive that this is no longer reading, but a real dialogue. Do we agree with the man who two thousand years ago said, “If you can’t change the world, change your attitude towards this world”? You decide.
Philosophy, first of all, preaches common sense, sociability and humanity
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Letter 1. On the Use of Time
Can you show me someone who would value time, who would know what
It's a day, who would understand that he is dying every hour? That's our trouble, that death
we see ahead; and most of it is behind us – after all, how many years of life have passed,
everyone belongs to death.
Letter 2. About reading books
You need to stay for a long time with one or another of the great minds, feeding the soul with them, if you want to extract something that would remain in it. He who is everywhere is nowhere. Those who spend their lives wandering end up with many hosts but no friends. The same will certainly happen to those who do not get used to any of the great minds, but run through everything in a hurry and hastily.
Letter 3. About choosing friends
If you consider someone a friend and at the same time do not trust him as you trust yourself, then you are mistaken and do not know what true friendship is. Try to figure everything out together with your friend, but first figure it out yourself. Having made friends, trust, judge before you become friends.
Letter 4. About the Fear of Death
Note to yourself that you should be least afraid of that which usually inspires the greatest fear. We must reason in this way if we want to calmly and firmly face the last hour, the fear of which makes the remaining hours of our life painful.
Letter 5. On the philosophical way of life
We will do everything to live better than the crowd, and not contrary to the crowd, otherwise we will scare away and put to flight those whom we want to correct. Out of fear that they will have to imitate us in everything, they will not want to imitate us in anything – that’s all we will achieve.
Letter 6. About true friendship
Any good is not our joy if we possess it alone. And no knowledge, even the most sublime and beneficial, but only for me alone, will give me pleasure. If I were given wisdom, but with one condition: that I keep it to myself and not share it, I would refuse it.
Letter 7. Move away from the crowd
There is nothing more fatal to good morals than spectacles: after all, through pleasure, vices creep up on us even more easily.
Let those in whom the soul has not yet strengthened and become steadfast in goodness stay further away from the people: such a person easily goes over to the side of the majority. Even Socrates, Catois and Laelius 19 would have abandoned their virtues in the midst of a crowd unlike them, and of us, no matter how much we improve our nature, not one can resist the onslaught of approaching vices from all sides.
Letter 8. About distrust of happiness
Please your body only as much as is necessary to maintain its strength, and consider this way of life to be the only healthy and healing one. Despise everything that unnecessary labor creates for decoration or display. Remember: nothing but the soul is worthy of admiration, and for a great soul everything is less than it.
Letter 12: On the Benefits of Old Age
Every pleasure reserves its most joyful moment for the end. And the most pleasant age is the one that goes downhill, but does not yet slide into the abyss.
You will object to me: “It is painful to see death before your eyes.” But, firstly, it must be before the eyes of both the old man and the young man – after all, they do not call us according to the age list. Secondly, there are no old people so decrepit that they would be ashamed to hope for an extra day. Every day is a stage of life, our entire century is divided into parts and consists of circles, smaller and larger, covering smaller ones.
Letter 17. Contempt for Wealth
If you want your soul to be free, be either poor or like the poor. The most diligent studies will not bring healing if you do not abstain, and abstinence is voluntary poverty.
It is not difficult to feed a few mouths if your parasites are not spoiled and only want to be satisfied. Hunger is inexpensive, pickiness is expensive. Poverty is enough to satisfy the most urgent desires.
Many, having accumulated wealth, found not an end to their troubles, but other troubles
– Epicurus
Letter 18. About the entertainments of the sage
There is more steadfastness in remaining sober when all the people are drunk to the point of vomiting, more moderation in not mixing with everyone, not standing out and not being an exception and doing the same thing as everyone else, but differently. After all, you can spend a holiday without indulging in luxury.
In the midst of complete serenity, let the soul prepare for difficulties, and in the midst of the blessings of fortune accumulate strength against its insults. Even in peacetime, soldiers go on a campaign, although not against the enemy, build ramparts, exhaust themselves with unnecessary work so that they have enough strength to do what is necessary. If you don’t want a warrior to falter in battle, temper him before battle.
Letter 23. About true joy
The one who knows what to be happy about, who does not give up his happiness to the mercy of others, has reached the top. He who is attracted by hope knows no peace, is not confident in himself, even if the object of it is nearby, and it is easier to get it, and she has never deceived before
Letter 28. On the futility of travel
It is important how you arrive, not where you arrive, and therefore we should not become attached to any place with all our souls. We must live with the following conviction: “I was not born for one corner: the whole world is my homeland.”
If this were clear to you, you would not be surprised that the novelty of places does not help when you, bored with one country, move to another: after all, the first one would have suited you if you considered everything yours
Letter 30. About the fear of death
The inevitability of death is equal for everyone and invincible. Is it possible to blame your lot if it is the same as everyone else’s? Equality is the beginning of justice. This means that there is no need to defend nature, which did not want us to live not according to its laws, from accusations. And she destroys what was created, creates what was destroyed again.
If we wanted to understand the reasons for our fear, we would be convinced that some of them exist, others we imagine. We are not afraid of death, but of thoughts about death – after all, we are always two steps away from death itself. This means that if death is terrible, then we must always be in fear: will we ever be free from it?
Letter 31. On the necessity of labor
Become what you intended to become, no more and no better – I don’t want anything else. When building the foundation, you were not constrained by space, but complete what you set your mind to, put into action everything that you have in your soul.
What is good? Knowledge. What is evil? Ignorance. He who is smart and skilled, depending on the circumstances, will reject one thing and choose another. However, he does not fear what he rejects, and does not admire what he chooses, if only his soul is high and invincible. I forbid you to become discouraged and lament. It is not enough not to refuse work: you need to look for it!
Letter 32. About the end of life
The most useful thing is to avoid people who are not like you and who are obsessed with other desires. I'm not afraid that they will make you different, I'm afraid that they will interfere with you. After all, the one for whom we hesitate does a lot of harm to us; especially since our life is short and we ourselves shorten it even more with our inconstancy, each time starting to live anew.
Letter 36. On indifference to the judgments of the crowd and to death
Encourage your friend so that with all his noble heart he despises those who blaspheme him because he chose obscurity and leisure, that he refused an honorable position and, although he could have risen higher, he preferred peace to everything. Every day it will become clearer to them that he has made a deal to his advantage. Those who are envied change every now and then: some are forced out, others fall. Happiness is a restless thing: it gives itself neither rest nor time and disturbs our mind in many ways.
Now is the time to learn. – “How so? Is there ever a time when there is no need to study? No, but if it is decent to study science at any age, then it is not appropriate to go into education at every age. It’s embarrassing and funny to watch an old man take up his ABCs. You should save in your youth, and use in your old age.
Letter 41. About the deity living within us
If you see a man undaunted by danger, free from passion, happy in the midst of troubles, calm in the midst of storms, looking down on people and on the gods as equals, will you not feel admiration for him? Wouldn’t you say: “There is something here too great and sublime for one to believe that it is similar to this pitiful body – its abode. Divine power descended here.”
What kind of soul is this? The one that does not shine with other benefits except its own. Is there anything more stupid than praising a person for something that does not belong to him? Is there anything crazier than admiring things that can immediately move on to something else?
No one should boast about someone else's things. We praise the vine if it burdens the shoots with clusters, if it bends the support to the ground with the weight of its own fruits. Who would prefer a vine to it, on which both berries and leaves are made of gold? The advantage of the vine is its fruitfulness; so in a person one should praise only that which is of himself.
Letter 50. Know your shortcomings
It is difficult to return to nature only those who have fallen away from it. We are ashamed to learn good thoughts; but really, if it is a shame to look for a teacher in such a matter, then there is no point in hoping that this great benefit will come to us by chance. We need to work – and, in truth, this work is not so great, if only, I repeat, we begin to educate and correct the soul before its depravity takes root.
There is nothing that hard work and caring treatment can't overcome. Curved oak trunks can be made straight; curved logs are straightened by heat, and contrary to their nature, they are given the look we need
Letter 54. About the approach of death
If I’m not mistaken, Lucilius, then this is our delusion: we think that death will be ahead, but it will be, and it was. What happened before us is the same death. Doesn't it matter whether it stops or doesn't start? After all, both here and there – the result is the same: non-existence.
Give praise and imitate the one for whom it is not hard to die, even though his life is pleasant. Is it great courage to leave when you are thrown out the door?
Letter 56. About unpleasant sounds
After all, I force my spirit to focus on itself and not be distracted by anything external. Let everything make noise and rattle outside the doors – as long as there is no turmoil inside, as long as lust and fear do not quarrel with each other, do not start a feud and do not torment each other with wastefulness and stinginess. Even if there is silence throughout the area – how much benefit does it have for us if our passions are raging?
Letter 63. Don't Mourn Loss Too Much
Our Attalus repeated: “The memory of dead friends is pleasant to us, just like the astringency in some fruits, like very old wine, which is tasty because it is bitter: after all, with the distance of time, everything that tormented us fades away, and only pure wine reaches us.” joy”.
If you believe him, then “thinking about living friends is like eating honey and cookies; the memory of those who were is pleasant, not without bitterness. Who, however, will deny that both bitter and not devoid of pungency excite the stomach?
I, however, feel differently; for me, thinking about dead friends is joyful and sweet. When they were with me, I knew that I would lose them, when I lost them, I know that they were with me
Letter 72. Philosophy should be preferred to everything
The sage remembers thanks to whom he enjoys their fruits, thanks to whom social necessity does not call him to arms, to guard duty, to guard walls and to all the numerous military labors, and he is grateful to his helmsman. This is what philosophy teaches: to be grateful for benefits and to pay for them with benefits; but sometimes gratitude itself serves as payment
A wise man values himself no less because his virtues have a short lifespan. Thus, of the two wise men, the one who died in old age is no more blessed than the one whose virtue was limited to a few years; so God takes over the sage not with happiness, but with a long life
Letter 74. Only the righteous is good
Whoever decides to achieve bliss, let him remember that there is only one good – honesty. And if he sees other benefits, it means that he thinks poorly of Providence, because many troubles happen to just people and because everything allocated to us from him is short-lived and insignificant in comparison with the longevity of the entire universe
We complain that we don’t always get everything, and little by little, and not for sure, and not for long. Therefore, we do not want to live or die: life is hateful to us, death is terrible. Every plan we have is shaky, and no amount of luck can satisfy us. And the reason is that we have not yet achieved the immeasurable and unsurpassed good, on which our desire cannot but stop, since there is nothing higher than the peak
This letter is much longer than all the others, so the two paragraphs above serve only as an introduction to the subject of the letter
Letter 78. One should not be afraid of illnesses
Nothing strengthens the sick and helps him more than the love of friends; nothing drives away fear and anticipation of death.
It is also useful to direct thoughts to other objects to distract them from pain. Think about how you acted honestly and bravely, repeat to yourself that there is a good side to everything, turn your memory to what admired you. Then any brave man who has overcome pain will come to your aid: the one who continued to read the book while his swollen veins were being cut out, and the one who did not stop laughing when the executioners, enraged by this laughter, tried one instrument of cruelty on him one after another.
Letter 84. About collecting book wisdom
Reading nourishes the mind and gives rest to those who are tired from studies and do something else. You can’t just write or just read: one of these tasks is depressing and takes away strength (I mean the pen), the second distracts and relaxes. We must in turn move from one to another and moderate one with the other, so that our pen collected while reading turns into something significant. As they say, we should imitate the bees who wander in search of honey-bearing flowers, and then put what they bring into the honeycomb, where it is digested into honey
Letter 88. On the importance of the liberal arts
We must see whether these teachers teach virtue; if they don’t teach, then they have nothing to teach; if they teach, then they are philosophers. Do you want to make sure that they are in class and not thinking about teaching virtue? Look how different each person's teaching is from the others! But if they taught the same thing, there would be no discrepancy.
Although virtue needs to be learned. It cannot be learned through science
Letter 93. About longevity
I pray you, my Lucilius, try so that our lives, like jewels, are taken not by size, but by weight. Let's measure it by deeds, not by time. Do you want to know what the difference is between a cheerful husband who despises fortune, who has accomplished everything that is required in the service of life, who has risen to its highest good, and the one who has many years behind him? One remains even after death, the other died before dying
Letter 96. On the inevitability of grief
If you ask me, then I think that a person has no misfortunes, except for one thing: if he considers at least something in nature to be misfortune. I will become intolerable to myself the day I cannot bear something.
Those who know no peace, those who go up and down difficult steep slopes, those who make the most dangerous forays, are those brave men, the first in the camp, and those who enjoy shameful peace while others work are those doves, shamefully delivered from danger.
Letter 98. Happiness depends on ourselves
The soul is stronger than fortune: it is she who leads everything here or there, she makes her life blissful or miserable.
An evil soul turns everything for the worse, even what comes under the guise of the best.
An upright soul, free from corruption, corrects the evil of fortune and with knowledge softens hard-to-bear hardships; She meets everything pleasant modestly and with gratitude, everything unpleasant – courageously and with steadfastness.
Letter 102. Good fame is good
Rumor certainly requires loud words, but confession does not: it can be content with an unspoken judgment and be complete not only among silence, but also among blaming shouts.
Nature searches us at the exit, as at the entrance. You cannot bear more than you brought; and a considerable part of what you took with you into life will have to be left behind.
This is only a small part of that “concentrate”. I think you were at least a little interested since you read to the end. The book can be purchased on any popular platform, or it is quite easy to find in digital form. Hello flibusta.is
