On instinct in animals
121:24
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.
24.
No wonder that living things are born with a gift whose absence would make birth useless.
This is the first equipment that Nature granted them for the maintenance of their existence—the quality of adaptability and self-love.
They could not survive except by desiring to do so.
Nor would this desire alone have made them prosper, but without it nothing could have prospered.
In no animal can you observe any low esteem, or even any carelessness, of self.
Dumb beasts, sluggish in other respects, are clever at living.
So you will see that creatures which are useless to others are alert for their own preservation.
Farewell.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On instinct in animals
Location: Chapter 121, Section 24
Content:
24.
No wonder that living things are born with a gift whose absence would make birth useless.
This is the first equipment that Nature granted them for the maintenance of their existence—the quality of adaptability and self-love.
They could not survive except by desiring to do so.
Nor would this desire alone have made them prosper, but without it nothing could have prospered.
In no animal can you observe any low esteem, or even any carelessness, of self.
Dumb beasts, sluggish in other respects, are clever at living.
So you will see that creatures which are useless to others are alert for their own preservation.
Farewell.