In letters from a stoic 42, Seneca talks about a friend of Lucilius who claimed that he is a good man. For the Stoics, to be good means to live a life of virtues. Seneca expressed his doubt because first, to be truly good takes time.
Virtues are good habits that need to be built with time. Second, if his friend claims that he is a good person, then he not fully caught the wisdom what it means to be good. I subscribed to the maxim that “Good people don’t know they are good”
In the next part of the letter, Seneca talks about the importance of understanding our values. Whether it be a purchase, pursuit, or a life goal we must wholly devote our resources and energy to what truly matters to us.
“Therefore, with regard to the objects which we pursue, and for which we strive with great effort, we should note this truth; either there is nothing desirable in them, or the undesirable is preponderant. Some objects are superfluous; others are not worth the price we pay for them” That’s because sometimes we tend to chase things that we already have enough of and sometimes things that do truly do matter to us. We need to evaluate our values – things that we truly desire.
“Good people don’t know they are good”
In the last part of the letter, Seneca emphasized that loss is just a matter of perception. “Look about you and note the things that drive us mad, which we lose with a flood of tears; you will perceive that it is not the loss that troubles us with reference to these things, but a notion of loss. No one feels that they have been lost, but his mind tells him that it has been so. “This is an essential Stoic practice – to train ourselves to evaluate and direct our perceptions. Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus talk a lot about how the quality of our lives depends on how perceive things in our lives.
"You will perceive that it is not the loss that troubles us with reference to these things, but a notion of loss.
***** Letters from a Stoic Key Takeaways is a collection of short key takeaways from the letters sent by Seneca to Lucilius. Read each letter’s key takeways here .
