On real ethics as superior to syllogistic subtleties
117:18
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.
18.
Lo, these many years I have been condemning myself for imitating these men at the very time when I am arraigning them, and of wasting words on a subject that is perfectly clear.
For who can doubt that, if heat is an evil, it is also an evil to be hot?
Or that, if cold is an evil, it is an evil to be cold?
Or that, if life is a Good, so is being alive?
All such matters are on the outskirts of wisdom, not in wisdom itself.
But our abiding-place should be in wisdom itself.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On real ethics as superior to syllogistic subtleties
Location: Chapter 117, Section 18
Content:
18.
Lo, these many years I have been condemning myself for imitating these men at the very time when I am arraigning them, and of wasting words on a subject that is perfectly clear.
For who can doubt that, if heat is an evil, it is also an evil to be hot?
Or that, if cold is an evil, it is an evil to be cold?
Or that, if life is a Good, so is being alive?
All such matters are on the outskirts of wisdom, not in wisdom itself.
But our abiding-place should be in wisdom itself.