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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 68

On the value of advice

94:68

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.

68.

We must unravel all such cases as are forced before our eyes and crammed into our ears; we must clear out our hearts, for they are full of evil talk.

Virtue must be conducted into the place these have seized,—a kind of virtue which may root out falsehood and doctrines which contravene the truth, or may sunder us from the throng, in which we put too great trust, and may restore us to the possession of sound opinions.

For this is wisdom—a return to Nature and a restoration to the condition from which man’s errors have driven us.