Plain
Seneca — The Senator

"What's the difference between me, a fool, and you, a wise person?" The difference is huge. Rich people serve a wise person, but they rule over a fool. You get used to your wealth and hold onto it like someone promised it would be yours forever. But a wise person thinks most about being poor exactly when they're surrounded by riches.

On the Happy Life, Section 26 89 of 101
Knowing Yourself Freedom & Control What Matters Most
Seneca — The Senator Original

"What difference, then, is there between me, who am a fool, and you, who are a wise man?" "All the difference in the world: for riches are slaves in the house of a wise man, but masters in that of a fool. You accustom yourself to them and cling to them as if somebody had promised that they should be yours for ever, but a wise man never thinks so much about poverty as when he is surrounded by riches.

On the Happy Life, Section 26 89 of 101
Seneca — The Senator

So we should use the tough, fighting virtues when we're poor. When we're rich, we should use the gentler virtues that move easily and just carry their own weight. Given this difference, I'd rather deal with virtues I can practice in peace than ones I can only test through struggle and hardship. "This is why," says the wise man, "I don't say one thing and do another. But you don't really understand what I'm saying. You only hear the sound of my words. You don't try to figure out what they actually mean."

On the Happy Life, Section 25 88 of 101
Doing The Right Thing Knowing Yourself
Seneca — The Senator Original

We ought, therefore, to apply these energetic, combative virtues to poverty, and to riches those other more thrifty ones which trip lightly along, and merely support their own weight. This being the distinction between them, I would rather have to deal with those which I could practise in comparative quiet, than those of which one can only make trial through blood and sweat. "Wherefore," says the sage, "I do not talk one way and live another: but you do not rightly understand what I say: the sound of my words alone reaches your ears, you do not try to find out their meaning."

On the Happy Life, Section 25 88 of 101
‹ Previous Next ›

Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

About · Support