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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 8

On consolation to the bereaved

99:8

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.

8.

Does a man bewail an event which he knew would take place?

Or, if he did not think of death as man’s lot, he has but cheated himself.

Does a man bewail an event which he has been admitting to be unavoidable?

Whoever complains about the death of anyone, is complaining that he was a man.

Everyone is bound by the same terms: he who is privileged to be born, is destined to die.