In letters from a stoic 37, Seneca reminded Lucilius about his oath to be a good man. From the Stoic perspective, to be a good person means to practice virtues. He then reminded his friend about an important Stoic concept - embracing fate. One inevitable fate Seneca talked about in the letter is death. “You cannot escape necessities, but you can overcome them” …
In letters from a stoic 36, Seneca talks about Lucilius’ friend who seemed to be getting a lot of criticism about his decision to retire from office. Being retired himself, Seneca understood the difficulty of leaving the spotlight. There are pros and cons to which he talked in letter 19. He said that his friend should stay grounded with his decision to be able to retire and live in tranquility. …
Letters from a stoic 35 is quite a short letter but an intriguing one. Seneca said to Lucilius that though they care for each other, they are not yet technically “friends”. According to Seneca the only way they can be friends is that Lucilius has to keep improving himself. The friendship between two men is defined by the likeness of their wisdom. He told Lucilius to hasten his quest for self-improvement…
In letters from a stoic 34, Seneca takes pleasure in the continual improvement of his dear friend, Lucilius. He has guided the younger man in his quest to becoming a better version of himself giving him advice on the ways of life. The wise old man highlighted will as the most important component of any self-improvement process. “It is that the larger part of good-ness is…
In letters from a stoic 33, Seneca talks about studying maxims. Maxims are short statements to describe truth or general conduct. As we all know the wise old man likes to end his letters with a maxim mostly from Epicurus. Seneca said that a maxim should not be taken only for itself. A maxim speaks a general truth and anyone who wants to adopt a maxim should understand the bigger…