Sublime

“But there is no reason to live and no limit to our miseries if we let our fears predominate.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 13.12b

“Let all your efforts be directed to something, let it keep that end in view. It’s not activity that disturbs people, but false conceptions of things that drive them mad.” —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 12.5

Seneca would say that he actually pitied people who have never experienced misfortune. “You have passed through life without an opponent,” he said. “No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”

Keep neither a blunt knife nor an ill-disciplined looseness of tongue.

As it is with a play, so it is with life – what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.

“Aren’t you ashamed to reserve for yourself only the remnants of your life and to dedicate to wisdom only that time can’t be directed to business?” —SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.5b

Agis en tout comme si Épicure te regardait. » Il est utile sans doute de s'être imposé un surveillant, d'avoir un modèle à contempler, qui intervienne et se fasse sentir dans toutes tes pensées. Il est bien plus admirable encore de vivre comme un la présence continuelle et sous les yeux de quelque homme de bien ;

I imagine many people could have achieved wisdom if they had not imagined they had already achieved it, if they had not dissembled about some of their own characteristics and turned a blind eye to others.

My situation, however, is the same as that of many who are reduced to slender means through no fault of their own: every one forgives them, but no one comes to their rescue.