On the usefulness of basic principles
95:34
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.
35.
If we would hold men firmly bound and tear them away from the ills which clutch them fast, they must learn what is evil and what is good.
They must know that everything except virtue changes its name and becomes now good and now bad.
Just as the soldier’s primary bond of union is his oath of allegiance and his love for the flag, and a horror of desertion, and just as, after this stage, other duties can easily be demanded of him, and trusts given to him when once the oath has been administered; so it is with those whom you would bring to the happy life: the first foundations must be laid, and virtue worked into these men.
Let them be held by a sort of superstitious worship of virtue; let them love her; let them desire to live with her, and refuse to live without her.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the usefulness of basic principles
Location: Chapter 95, Section 34
Content:
35.
If we would hold men firmly bound and tear them away from the ills which clutch them fast, they must learn what is evil and what is good.
They must know that everything except virtue changes its name and becomes now good and now bad.
Just as the soldier’s primary bond of union is his oath of allegiance and his love for the flag, and a horror of desertion, and just as, after this stage, other duties can easily be demanded of him, and trusts given to him when once the oath has been administered; so it is with those whom you would bring to the happy life: the first foundations must be laid, and virtue worked into these men.
Let them be held by a sort of superstitious worship of virtue; let them love her; let them desire to live with her, and refuse to live without her.