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Moral Letters Vol II

Seneca

§ Section 2

On worldly deceptions

80:2

Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.

Book Description: The second volume of Seneca's moral letters to Lucilius. Each letter contains Seneca's advice and wisdom won from a life of Roman politics.

2.

And yet that was a very bold word which I spoke when I assured myself that I should have some quiet, and some uninterrupted retirement.

For lo, a great cheer comes from the stadium, and while it does not drive me distracted, yet it shifts my thought to a contrast suggested by this very noise.

How many men, I say to myself, train their bodies, and how few train their minds!

What crowds flock to the games,—spurious as they are and arranged merely for pastime,—and what a solitude reigns where the good arts are taught!

How feather-brained are the athletes whose muscles and shoulders we admire!