On the conflict between pleasure and virtue
123:14
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.
14.
Do you not see how different is the method of descending a mountain from that employed in climbing upwards?
Men coming down a slope bend backwards; men ascending a steep place lean forward.
For, my dear Lucilius, to allow yourself to put your body’s weight ahead when coming down, or, when climbing up, to throw it backward is to comply with vice.
The pleasures take one down hill but one must work upwards toward that which is rough and hard to climb; in the one case let us throw our bodies forward, in the others let us put the check-rein on them.
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 14
Content:
14.
Do you not see how different is the method of descending a mountain from that employed in climbing upwards?
Men coming down a slope bend backwards; men ascending a steep place lean forward.
For, my dear Lucilius, to allow yourself to put your body’s weight ahead when coming down, or, when climbing up, to throw it backward is to comply with vice.
The pleasures take one down hill but one must work upwards toward that which is rough and hard to climb; in the one case let us throw our bodies forward, in the others let us put the check-rein on them.