Some Timeless Wisdom From Seneca – Lessons for Life and Stoicism
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, better known as Seneca, was born in Cordoba, Roman Spain, in 4 BC and died in 65 AD. He grew up in Rome as a son of a procurator who was an authority in rhetoric, public speaking and debate, and I guess Seneca learned from his father.
Seneca is known for his writings, mainly his essays and over one hundred letters dealing with moral issues. The essays and letters are the main material for Stoicism. His influence is immense, read the quotes below to understand why, and his timeless wisdom will most likely continue for thousands of years. Seneca gained much wisdom from his own illness: During his life, he suffered from ill health and contemplated suicide several times. This is apparent in some of the letters where he discusses life and death.
In the introduction of Letters From A Stoic, the translator writes that Seneca’s writing style matters more than the topic. The sentences are pretty long, but still easy to understand.
I have read two books by Seneca: On the Shortness Of Life and Letters From A Stoic. Below you find what I consider to be the main takeaways after the first read, and the quotes are pretty self-explanatory. The quotes are taken in chronological order from start to finish and not sorted on topic.
On the shortness of life:
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it…..So it is – the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but we are wasteful of it.
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The part of life we really live is small.
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No one is to be found who is willing to distribute his money, yet among how many does each one of us distribute his life! In guarding their fortune men are often closefisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most prodigal.
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Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is busied with many things – eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies – since the mind, when its interests are divided, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it.
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Everyone hurries his life on and suffers from yearning for the future and a weariness of the present.
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But no one sets a value on time; all use it lavishly as if it cost nothing.
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They keep themselves very busily engaged in order that they may be able to live better, they spend life in making ready to live!
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….then at last they reflect how uselessly they have striven for things which they did not enjoy…..
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But those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled…..
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Reasons for anxiety will never be lacking, whether born of prosperity or of wretchedness; life pushes on in a succession of engrossments. We shall always pray for leisure, but never enjoy it.
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They will waste all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned by their name.
Letters from a Stoic:
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
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To be everywhere is to be nowhere.
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A plant which is frequently moved never grows strong.
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It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
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You ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough.
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But if you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of a true friendship.
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Those people who, contrary to Theophrastus’ advice, judge a man after they have made him their friend instead of the other way around, certainly put the cart before the horse.
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Trusting everyone is as much a fault as trusting no one.
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For a delight in bustling about is not industry – it is only the restless energy of a hunted mind.
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…the active man should be able to take things easily, while the man who is inclined towards repose should be capable of action.
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Refrain from following the example of those whose craving is for attention.
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Wild animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they have escaped them worry no more.
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There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with.
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Associating with people in large numbers is actually harmful.
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Associate with people who are likely to improve you.
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When his whole attention is absorbed in concentration on the work he is enganged on, a tremendous sense of satisfaction is created in him by his very absorption.
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What is my object in making a friend? To have someone to be able to die for.
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“All my possessions”, he said, “are with me”, meaning by this the qualities of a just, a good and an enlightened character, and indeed the very fact of not regarding as valuable anything that is capable of being taken away.
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Does it make you see how much easier it can be to conquer a whole people that to conquer a single man?
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Any man…who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the world.
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Only the wise man is content with what is his. All foolishness suffers the burden of dissatisfaction with itself.
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Well, we should cherish old age and enjoy it.
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Every pleasure defers till its last its greatest delights.
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Whoever has said “I have lived” receives a windfall every day he gets up in the morning.
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It is clear to you, I know, Lucilius, that no one can lead a happy life, or even one th