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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 6

On true and false riches

110:6

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.

6.

Let us account it worth while to look closely at the matter; then it will be clear how fleeting, how unsure, and how harmless are the things which we fear.

The disturbance in our spirits is similar to that which Lucretius detected: Like boys who cower frightened in the dark, So grown-ups in the light of day feel fear.

What, then?

Are we not more foolish than any child, we who “in the light of day feel fear”?