On the futility of planning ahead
101:13
Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Book Description: The final volume of Seneca's moral letters. Common Stoic themes emerge again and again: the unreliability of fortune, the ability to form Stoic resolve, and the importance of virtue.
13.
What would you ask for Maecenas but the indulgence of Heaven?
What does he mean by such womanish and indecent verse?
What does he mean by making terms with panic fear?
What does he mean by begging so vilely for life?
He cannot ever have heard Vergil read the words: He asks for the climax of suffering, and—what is still harder to bear—prolongation and extension of suffering; and what does he gain thereby?
Merely the boon of a longer existence.
But what sort of life is a lingering death?
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the futility of planning ahead
Location: Chapter 101, Section 13
Content:
13.
What would you ask for Maecenas but the indulgence of Heaven?
What does he mean by such womanish and indecent verse?
What does he mean by making terms with panic fear?
What does he mean by begging so vilely for life?
He cannot ever have heard Vergil read the words: He asks for the climax of suffering, and—what is still harder to bear—prolongation and extension of suffering; and what does he gain thereby?
Merely the boon of a longer existence.
But what sort of life is a lingering death?