On nature as our best provider
119:6
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.
Would you rather have much, or enough?
He who has much desires more—a proof that he has not yet acquired enough; but he who has enough has attained that which never fell to the rich man’s lot—a stopping-point.
Do you think that this condition to which I refer is not riches, just because no man has ever been proscribed as a result of possessing them?
Or because sons and wives have never thrust poison down one’s throat for that reason?
Or because in war-time these riches are unmolested?
Or because they bring leisure in time of peace?
Or because it is not dangerous to possess them, or troublesome to invest them?
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On nature as our best provider
Location: Chapter 119, Section 6
Content:
6.
Would you rather have much, or enough?
He who has much desires more—a proof that he has not yet acquired enough; but he who has enough has attained that which never fell to the rich man’s lot—a stopping-point.
Do you think that this condition to which I refer is not riches, just because no man has ever been proscribed as a result of possessing them?
Or because sons and wives have never thrust poison down one’s throat for that reason?
Or because in war-time these riches are unmolested?
Or because they bring leisure in time of peace?
Or because it is not dangerous to possess them, or troublesome to invest them?