Sublime

In the mid-first century AD, Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca said, “If wisdom were offered me with the provision that I should keep it shut up and refrain from declaring it, I should refuse. There’s no delight in owning anything unshared.”

« Renonce enfin aux vanités que poursuit l'homme par tant de voies ; renonce aux richesses, péril ou fardeau de qui les possède ; renonce aux folles joies du corps et de l'âme : elles amollissent, elles énervent ; renonce à l'ambition, gonflée de vide, de chimères et de vent : elle n'a point de limites, elle n'a pas moins peur de voir quelqu'un dev

In Seneca’s essay on tranquility, he uses the Greek word euthymia

Or comment modérer les autres, quand on ne peut se modérer ?

“We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can’t stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable. —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS

“Many are harmed by fear itself, and many may have come to their fate while dreading fate.” —SENECA, OEDIPUS, 992

when the Roman republic was looked to as a source of political ideas Seneca and his Stoicism took on exceptional interest.

Seneca gives us a model where anger is pervasive and part of our lives, but not part of the propensities of our nature. We are born with instincts of love, openness and accord. As we grow, we tend to become attached to external goods and our own safety. Aggression results from this interplay between our natures and the circumstances in which we fin

“Hecato says, ‘cease to hope and you will cease to fear.’ … The primary cause of both these ills is that instead of adapting ourselves to present circumstances we send out thoughts too far ahead.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 5.7b–8