On the usefulness of basic principles
95:63
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.
64.
But let us unite the two.
For indeed branches are useless without their roots, and the roots themselves are strengthened by the growths which they have produced.
Everyone can understand how useful the hands are; they obviously help us.
But the heart, the source of the hands growth and power and motion, is hidden.
And I can say the same thing about precepts: they are manifest, while the doctrines of wisdom are concealed.
And as only the initiated know the more hallowed portion of the rites, so in philosophy the hidden truths are revealed only to those who are members and have been admitted to the sacred rites.
But precepts and other such matters are familiar even to the uninitiated.
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 63
Content:
64.
But let us unite the two.
For indeed branches are useless without their roots, and the roots themselves are strengthened by the growths which they have produced.
Everyone can understand how useful the hands are; they obviously help us.
But the heart, the source of the hands growth and power and motion, is hidden.
And I can say the same thing about precepts: they are manifest, while the doctrines of wisdom are concealed.
And as only the initiated know the more hallowed portion of the rites, so in philosophy the hidden truths are revealed only to those who are members and have been admitted to the sacred rites.
But precepts and other such matters are familiar even to the uninitiated.