On facing hardships
96:2
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.
2.
Such affairs come by order, and not by accident.
If you will believe me, it is my inmost emotions that I am just now disclosing to you: when everything seems to go hard and uphill, I have trained myself not merely to obey God, but to agree with His decisions.
I follow Him because my soul wills it, and not because I must.
Nothing will ever happen to me that I shall receive with ill humour or with a wry face.
I shall pay up all my taxes willingly.
Now all the things which cause us to groan or recoil, are part of the tax of life—things, my dear Lucilius, which you should never hope and never seek to escape.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On facing hardships
Location: Chapter 96, Section 2
Content:
2.
Such affairs come by order, and not by accident.
If you will believe me, it is my inmost emotions that I am just now disclosing to you: when everything seems to go hard and uphill, I have trained myself not merely to obey God, but to agree with His decisions.
I follow Him because my soul wills it, and not because I must.
Nothing will ever happen to me that I shall receive with ill humour or with a wry face.
I shall pay up all my taxes willingly.
Now all the things which cause us to groan or recoil, are part of the tax of life—things, my dear Lucilius, which you should never hope and never seek to escape.