On the conflict between pleasure and virtue
123:13
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.
13.
This end will be possible for us if we understand that there are two classes of objects which either attract us or repel us.
We are attracted by such things as riches, pleasures, beauty, ambition, and other such coaxing and pleasing objects; we are repelled by toil, death, pain, disgrace, or lives of greater frugality.
We ought therefore to train ourselves so that we may avoid a fear of the one or a desire for the other.
Let us fight in the opposite fashion: let us retreat from the objects that allure, and rouse ourselves to meet the objects that attack.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the conflict between pleasure and virtue
Location: Chapter 123, Section 13
Content:
13.
This end will be possible for us if we understand that there are two classes of objects which either attract us or repel us.
We are attracted by such things as riches, pleasures, beauty, ambition, and other such coaxing and pleasing objects; we are repelled by toil, death, pain, disgrace, or lives of greater frugality.
We ought therefore to train ourselves so that we may avoid a fear of the one or a desire for the other.
Let us fight in the opposite fashion: let us retreat from the objects that allure, and rouse ourselves to meet the objects that attack.