On the value of advice
94:58
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.
58.
Do you wish to know how false is the gleam that has deceived your eyes?
There is really nothing fouler or more involved in darkness than these things of earth, sunk and covered for so long a time in the mud where they belong.
Of course they are foul; they have been hauled out through a long and murky mine-shaft.
There is nothing uglier than these metals during the process of refinement and separation from the ore.
Furthermore, watch the very workmen who must handle and sift the barren grade of dirt, the sort which comes from the bottom; see how soot-besmeared they are!
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 58
Content:
58.
Do you wish to know how false is the gleam that has deceived your eyes?
There is really nothing fouler or more involved in darkness than these things of earth, sunk and covered for so long a time in the mud where they belong.
Of course they are foul; they have been hauled out through a long and murky mine-shaft.
There is nothing uglier than these metals during the process of refinement and separation from the ore.
Furthermore, watch the very workmen who must handle and sift the barren grade of dirt, the sort which comes from the bottom; see how soot-besmeared they are!