Moral letters to Lucilius/Letter 33 - Wikisource, the free online library

Just to make sure that I have not been learning solely for my own benefit today, let me share with you three fine quotations I have come across, each concerned with something like the same idea – one of them is by way of payment of the usual debt so far as this letter is concerned, and the other two you are to regard as an advance on account. ‘To m

advising you first to decide that you wrote it not just for other people but also for yourself. It is shameful to say one thing and mean another; how much more shameful to write one thing and mean another! I remember you once expanded on the theme, “We do not meet death all at once; we move toward it bit by bit.”

Ancient Greek and Roman culture recognized and honoured our needs with greater dignity. The noblest minds – Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius – all turned their hands to what were unmistakably works of self-help. The applied philosophical tradition in which they operated continued beyond the fall of Rome. Michel de Montaigne’s

Ainsi, par-dessus tout, gardons-nous de suivre en stupide bétail la tête du troupeau, et de nous diriger où l'on va plutôt qu'où l'on doit aller. Or il n'est rien qui nous jette en d'inextricables misères comme de nous régler sur le bruit public, regardant comme le mieux ce que la foule applaudit et adopte, ce dont où voit le plus d'exemples, et vi

“What’s the point of having countless books and libraries, whose titles could hardly be read through in a lifetime. The learner is not taught, but burdened by the sheer volume, and it’s better to plant the seeds of a few authors than to be scattered about by many.” —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 9.4

“Many words have been spoken by Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, Posidonius, and by a whole host of equally excellent Stoics. I’ll tell you how people can prove their words to be their own—by putting into practice what they’ve been preaching.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 108.35; 38