Diving into the life and work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca from his Letters From a Stoic and On the Shortness of Life

-----

Check out my new book Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence

Sign up for my weekly greatness newsletter sent out every Saturday morning with stories, lessons, and quotes from greats throughout history, and some thoughts from me.

-----

Show Notes

1:45 - Background on Seneca

8:25 - On wealth and riches
“I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him.”
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

9:50 - On building discipline
“The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind. Eat merely to relieve your hunger; drink merely to quench your thirst; dress merely to keep out the cold; house yourself merely as a protection against personal discomfort.”

13:10- Practicing poverty
“I shall give you also a lesson: Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: "Is this the condition that I feared?"

18:45 - On death
“There is no fixed count on our years. You do not know where death awaits you; so be ready for it everywhere.”

21:40 - On reflection
“As far as possible, prove yourself guilty, hunt up charges against yourself; play the part first of accuser, then of judge, last of intercessor. At times be harsh with yourself.”

“I shall keep watching myself continually, and – a most useful habit – shall review each day. For this is what makes us wicked: that no one of us looks back over his own life. Our thoughts are devoted only to what we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future always depend on the past.”

26:00- On freedom
“And what is freedom, you ask? It means not being a slave to any circumstance, to any constraint, to any chance; it means compelling fortune to enter the list on equal terms.”

“You may therefore be sure that you are at peace with yourself, when no noise reaches you, when no word shakes you out of yourself, whether it be of flattery or of threat, or merely an empty sound buzzing about you with an unmeaning dim.”

34:30: On preparation
“That which has been long expected comes more gently.”

“Each day, he leaves his home with this thought in mind: “Today I will meet many addicted to wine, many overcome by lust, many who lack gratitude, many enslaved by greed, and many bewitched by the false promises of ambition” But all these conditions he will treat with kindness, as a doctor treats his own patients.”

40:35: On a daily reminder
“What can be given can also be taken away.”

43:15 On time
“It is not that we have a short time to love. But that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it we all well invested…So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, adn we are not ill-supplied bit wasteful of it.”

-----

Resources

Memento Mori Calander

Check out