On real ethics as superior to syllogistic subtleties
117:27
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.
27.
Who does not know that what is yet to be is not a Good, for the very reason that it is yet to be?
For that which is good is necessarily helpful.
And unless things are in the present, they cannot be helpful; and if a thing is not helpful, it is not a Good; if helpful, it is already.
I shall be a wise man some day; and this Good will be mine when I shall be a wise man, but in the meantime it is non-existent.
A thing must exist first, then may be of a certain kind.
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 27
Content:
27.
Who does not know that what is yet to be is not a Good, for the very reason that it is yet to be?
For that which is good is necessarily helpful.
And unless things are in the present, they cannot be helpful; and if a thing is not helpful, it is not a Good; if helpful, it is already.
I shall be a wise man some day; and this Good will be mine when I shall be a wise man, but in the meantime it is non-existent.
A thing must exist first, then may be of a certain kind.