On the Happy Life
Seneca answers his critics — can you preach simplicity while living in luxury? His answer is more honest than you'd expect.
101 cards · ~57 min read
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But if pleasure and virtue were truly inseparable, we wouldn't see what we actually see every day. Some things feel good but are wrong. Other things are deeply right but difficult and painful to achieve. Plus, pleasure shows up in the worst kinds of lives. Virtue cannot exist alongside evil. Yet some miserable people still have plenty of pleasure — in fact, pleasure is often what makes them miserable in the first place. This couldn't happen if pleasure and virtue were connected. Virtue often exists without pleasure and never needs it.