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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 37

On the approaches to philosophy

108:37

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.

37.

A teacher like that can help me no more than a sea-sick pilot can be efficient in a storm.

He must hold the tiller when the waves are tossing him; he must wrestle, as it were, with the sea; he must furl his sails when the storm rages; what good is a frightened and vomiting steersman to me?

And how much greater, think you, is the storm of life than that which tosses any ship!

One must steer, not talk.

All the words that these men utter and juggle before a listening crowd, belong to others.