On the value of advice
94:25
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.
25.
People say: “What good does it do to point out the obvious?” A great deal of good; for we sometimes know facts without paying attention to them.
Advice is not teaching; it merely engages the attention and rouses us, and concentrates the memory, and keeps it from losing grip.
We miss much that is set before our very eyes.
Advice is, in fact, a sort of exhortation.
The mind often tries not to notice even that which lies before our eyes; we must therefore force upon it the knowledge of things that are perfectly well known.
One might repeat here the saying of Calvus about Vatinius: “You all know that bribery has been going on, and everyone knows that you know it.”
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the value of advice
Location: Chapter 94, Section 25
Content:
25.
People say: “What good does it do to point out the obvious?” A great deal of good; for we sometimes know facts without paying attention to them.
Advice is not teaching; it merely engages the attention and rouses us, and concentrates the memory, and keeps it from losing grip.
We miss much that is set before our very eyes.
Advice is, in fact, a sort of exhortation.
The mind often tries not to notice even that which lies before our eyes; we must therefore force upon it the knowledge of things that are perfectly well known.
One might repeat here the saying of Calvus about Vatinius: “You all know that bribery has been going on, and everyone knows that you know it.”