On the vanity of mental gymnastics
111:5
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.
5.
I would not forbid you to practise such exercises occasionally; but let it be at a time when you wish to do nothing.
The worst feature, however, that these indulgences present is that they acquire a sort of self-made charm, occupying and holding the soul by a show of subtlety; although such weighty matters claim our attention, and a whole life seems scarcely sufficient to learn the single principle of despising life. “What?
Did you not mean ‘control’ instead of ‘despise’”?
No; “controlling” is the second task; for no one has controlled his life aright unless he has first learned to despise it.
Farewell.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the vanity of mental gymnastics
Location: Chapter 111, Section 5
Content:
5.
I would not forbid you to practise such exercises occasionally; but let it be at a time when you wish to do nothing.
The worst feature, however, that these indulgences present is that they acquire a sort of self-made charm, occupying and holding the soul by a show of subtlety; although such weighty matters claim our attention, and a whole life seems scarcely sufficient to learn the single principle of despising life. “What?
Did you not mean ‘control’ instead of ‘despise’”?
No; “controlling” is the second task; for no one has controlled his life aright unless he has first learned to despise it.
Farewell.