On the intimations of our immortality
102:9
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.
9.
You say, again, that renown is the praise rendered to a good man by good men.
Praise means speech: now speech is utterance with a particular meaning; and utterance, even from the lips of good men, is not a good in itself.
For any act of a good man is not necessarily a good; he shouts his applause and hisses his disapproval, but one does not call the shouting or the hissing good—although his entire conduct may be admired and praised—any more than one would applaud a sneeze or a cough.
Therefore, renown is not a good.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the intimations of our immortality
Location: Chapter 102, Section 9
Content:
9.
You say, again, that renown is the praise rendered to a good man by good men.
Praise means speech: now speech is utterance with a particular meaning; and utterance, even from the lips of good men, is not a good in itself.
For any act of a good man is not necessarily a good; he shouts his applause and hisses his disapproval, but one does not call the shouting or the hissing good—although his entire conduct may be admired and praised—any more than one would applaud a sneeze or a cough.
Therefore, renown is not a good.