Uploaded September 2019 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
This is my own recording of a public domain text. It is not copied and I retain the copyright.
The Moral Letter to Lucilius are a collection of 124 letters which were written by Seneca the Younger at the end of his life, during his retirement, and written after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for fifteen years. (These Moral Letters are the same letters which Tim Ferriss promotes in the Tao of Seneca)
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Translated by Richard Mott Gummere: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius
Notes:
“It is better, however, to get no return than to confer no benefits.”
“In order to discover one grateful person, it is worthwhile to make
trial of many ungrateful ones”
“we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will
which prompted it.”
“I reckon a benefit at a higher rate than an injury”
“…anyone who receives a benefit more gladly than he repays it is
mistaken”
“A man is an ingrate if he repays a favour without interest.
Therefore, interest also should be allowed for, when you compare
your receipts and your expenses.”
“We should try by all means to be as grateful as possible. For
gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a sense in which justice,
that is commonly supposed to concern other persons, is not;
gratitude returns in large measure unto itself. There is not a man
who, when he has benefited his neighbour, has not benefited
himself, – I do not mean for the reason that he whom you have aided
will desire to aid you…but that the reward for all the virtues lies in
the virtues themselves”
“Let us therefore avoid being ungrateful, not for the sake of
others but for our own sakes. When we do wrong, only the least
and lightest portion of it flows back upon our neighbour; the
worst and, if I may use the term, the densest portion of it stays at
home and troubles the owner”
“The ungrateful man tortures and torments himself; he hates the
gifts which he has accepted, because he must make a return for
them, and he tries to belittle their value, but he really enlarges
and exaggerates the injuries which he has received. And what is
more wretched than a man who forgets his benefits and clings to
his injuries”
“He does not put a wrong construction upon everything, or seek
for someone whom he may hold responsible for each happening;
he rather ascribes even the sins of men to chance. He will not
misinterpret a word or a look; he makes light of all mishaps by
interpreting them in a generous way.”
“We consider not what we have obtained, but what we are to
seek”
“For they are not praised because they ought to be desired, but
they are desired because they have been praised; and when the
error of individuals has once created error on the part of the
public, then the public error goes on creating error on the part of
individuals”
#stoicism #seneca #LettersFromaStoic #moralletterstolucilius
This is my own recording of a public domain text. It is not copied and I retain the copyright.
The Moral Letter to Lucilius are a collection of 124 letters which were written by Seneca the Younger at the end of his life, during his retirement, and written after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for fifteen years. (These Moral Letters are the same letters which Tim Ferriss promotes in the Tao of Seneca)
Support me here:
All Links: https://linktr.ee/VoxStoica
PayPal: paypal.me/RobinHomer
Amazon Referral: geni.us/SupportMeSenecaLetters
Translated by Richard Mott Gummere: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius
Notes:
“It is better, however, to get no return than to confer no benefits.”
“In order to discover one grateful person, it is worthwhile to make
trial of many ungrateful ones”
“we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will
which prompted it.”
“I reckon a benefit at a higher rate than an injury”
“…anyone who receives a benefit more gladly than he repays it is
mistaken”
“A man is an ingrate if he repays a favour without interest.
Therefore, interest also should be allowed for, when you compare
your receipts and your expenses.”
“We should try by all means to be as grateful as possible. For
gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a sense in which justice,
that is commonly supposed to concern other persons, is not;
gratitude returns in large measure unto itself. There is not a man
who, when he has benefited his neighbour, has not benefited
himself, – I do not mean for the reason that he whom you have aided
will desire to aid you…but that the reward for all the virtues lies in
the virtues themselves”
“Let us therefore avoid being ungrateful, not for the sake of
others but for our own sakes. When we do wrong, only the least
and lightest portion of it flows back upon our neighbour; the
worst and, if I may use the term, the densest portion of it stays at
home and troubles the owner”
“The ungrateful man tortures and torments himself; he hates the
gifts which he has accepted, because he must make a return for
them, and he tries to belittle their value, but he really enlarges
and exaggerates the injuries which he has received. And what is
more wretched than a man who forgets his benefits and clings to
his injuries”
“He does not put a wrong construction upon everything, or seek
for someone whom he may hold responsible for each happening;
he rather ascribes even the sins of men to chance. He will not
misinterpret a word or a look; he makes light of all mishaps by
interpreting them in a generous way.”
“We consider not what we have obtained, but what we are to
seek”
“For they are not praised because they ought to be desired, but
they are desired because they have been praised; and when the
error of individuals has once created error on the part of the
public, then the public error goes on creating error on the part of
individuals”
#stoicism #seneca #LettersFromaStoic #moralletterstolucilius
