On the value of advice
94:38
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.
38.
On this point I disagree with Posidonius, who says: “I do not think that Plato’s Laws should have the preambles added to them.
For a law should be brief, in order that the uninitiated may grasp it all the more easily.
It should be a voice, as it were, sent down from heaven; it should command, not discuss.
Nothing seems to me more dull or more foolish than a law with a preamble.
Warn me, tell me what you wish me to do; I am not learning but obeying.” But laws framed in this way are helpful; hence you will notice that a state with defective laws will have defective morals.
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 38
Content:
38.
On this point I disagree with Posidonius, who says: “I do not think that Plato’s Laws should have the preambles added to them.
For a law should be brief, in order that the uninitiated may grasp it all the more easily.
It should be a voice, as it were, sent down from heaven; it should command, not discuss.
Nothing seems to me more dull or more foolish than a law with a preamble.
Warn me, tell me what you wish me to do; I am not learning but obeying.” But laws framed in this way are helpful; hence you will notice that a state with defective laws will have defective morals.