Back to On the conflict between pleasure and virtue

Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 1

On the conflict between pleasure and virtue

123:1

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.

1.

Wearied with the discomfort rather than with the length of my journey, I have reached my Alban villa late at night, and I find nothing in readiness except myself.

So I am getting rid of fatigue at my writing-table: I derive some good from this tardiness on the part of my cook and my baker.

For I am communing with myself on this very topic—that nothing is heavy if one accepts it with a light heart, and that nothing need provoke one’s anger if one does not add to one’s pile of troubles by getting angry.