Letters from a Stoic
Seneca

Summary

Timeless lessons from one of the greatest philosophers in his letters to his friend

Rating: 4/5

Notes

Wealth is the wise man’s servant and the fool’s master

There is nothing neither good or bad but thinking makes it so

To be everywhere is to be nowhere

Don’t follow those who crave attention

One thing to avoid in particular - mass crowds

I am writing this not for the eyes of many but for you alone; for each of us is audience enough for the other

What fortune has made yours is not your own

If you wish to be loved, love

Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample is an unhappy man, even if he is a master of the world

Why be concerned about others when you’ve out done yourself

If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor. If according to other people’s opinions, you will never be rich - Epicurus

Rehearse death

A sound mind cannot be bought or borrowed. Yet unsound ones are being purchased every day

It is one thing to remember, it’s another to know. Create your own wisdom.

The men who pioneered old rates are leaders, not our masters. Truth lies open to everyone.

Treat your inferiors (slaves) in the way you’d like to be treated by your superiors

‘Each man has a character of his own choosing; it is chance or fate that decides his job’

Death precedes and succeeds us. What does it matter whether you cease to be or never begin, when the result of either is that you don’t exist?

Life itself is slavery if the courage to die be absent

Comforting thoughts contribute to a person’s cure when ill

‘In a single day lies open to men of learning more than there even does to the unenlightened in the largest of lifetimes’

Misfortune has a way of choosing some unprecedented means or other of impressing its power on those that said to have forgotten it

Nothing is durable whether for an individual or society

Let us face up to circumstances and be aware whatever happens is never as serious as we make it out to be

To make a better man of you, you must spend time in study and in the writings of wise men, to learn truths that have emerged from their research and carry on the search for ourselves for the answers that have not yet been discovered

The things you’re running from are there with you all the time

See to it that nothing takes you by surprise through central reflection

‘The greedy man does no one any good but harms no person more than his own self’

Life’s finest days for us poor human beings fly first

People’s speech matches their lives

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