Back to On the fickleness of fortune

Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 17

On the fickleness of fortune

98:17

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.

17.

This, my dear Lucilius, is what we mean by studying philosophy while applying it, by practising it on truth—note what courage a prudent man possesses against death, or against pain, when the one approaches and the other weighs heavily.

What ought to be done must be learned from one who does it.