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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 2

On obedience to the universal will

107:2

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.

2.

None of these things is unusual or unexpected.

It is as nonsensical to be put out by such events as to complain of being spattered in the street or at getting befouled in the mud.

The programme of life is the same as that of a bathing establishment, a crowd, or a journey: sometimes things will be thrown at you, and sometimes they will strike you by accident.

Life is not a dainty business.

You have started on a long journey; you are bound to slip, collide, fall, become weary, and cry out: “O for Death!”—or in other words, tell lies.

At one stage you will leave a comrade behind you, at another you will bury someone, at another you will be apprehensive.

It is amid stumblings of this sort that you must travel out this rugged journey.