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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 66

On the usefulness of basic principles

95:66

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.

67.

Would you, for instance, deem it a useful thing to have evidence given you by which you may recognize a thoroughbred horse, and not be cheated in your purchase or waste your time over a low-bred animal?

But how much more useful it is to know the marks of a surpassingly fine soul—marks which one may appropriate from another for oneself!