The original “YOLO”.

Truth telling from across the centuries. If you haven't read it you are missing out.

Seneca does it again: big life lessons delivered simply, sternly, and sagely. I heartily recommend the translation by Gareth Williams, whose introductory remarks distill Seneca and Stoicism into their absolute essentials and provide valuable historical context.

4 stars. Quite strong when used as a "daily devotional" but by the nature of its form very brief. Letters like these serve as a good jumping-off point into deeper reflection.

Three short letters:
1. On the Shortness of Life-(Is what it says it is, Seneca commenting on the shortness of life and how "Life is long if you know how to use it.")
2. Consolation to Helvia-(This is a letter to his mother around the time when he is being exiled to Corsica. In part it is an explanation of why his circumstances aren't that bad, but it is mostly explaining to his mother how to handle the grief of being separated from her son.)
3. On Tranquility of Mind-(A letter from Seneca to one of his friends Serenus reflecting upon how to live a peaceful life.)

Some of my favorite quotes/ideas:

IN REGARDS TO MONEY:
"You will find no one willing to share out his money; but to how many does each of us divide up his life! People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."

"Look at those whose good fortune people gather to see: they are choked by their own blessings."

"You really must consider how small your bodies are. Is it not madness and the worst form of derangement to want so much though you can hold so little?"

"Nothing satisfies greed, but even little satisfies nature."

SHORTNESS OF LIFE:
"That very day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last."

"But the man who spends all his time on his own needs, who organizes every day as though it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the next day."

"The greatest obstacle to living is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses today."

"By the toils of others we are led into the presence of things which have been brought from darkness into light. We are excluded from no age, but we have access to them all"

TRANQUILITY:
"It is the mind which is tranquil and free from care which can roam through all the stages of its life."

"As soon as their preoccupations fail them, they are restless with nothing to do, not knowing how to dispose of their leisure or make the time pass."

STEADFASTNESS:
"Fortune falls heavily on those to whom she is unexpected; the man who is always expecting her easily withstands her."

"For how little have we lost, when the two finest things of all will accompany us wherever we go, universal nature and our individual virtue."

"In no respect has nature put us more in her debt, since, knowing to what sorrows we were born, she contrived habit to soothe our disasters, and so quickly grow used to the worst ills."

PEOPLE:
"But if we shun all society and, abandoning the human race, live for ourselves alone, this isolation, devoid of any interest, will be followed by a dearth of worthwhile activity."

"We must take a careful look first at ourselves, then at the activities which we shall be attempting, and then at those for whose sake and with whom we are attempting them."

"a companion who is agitated and groaning about everything is an enemy to peace of mind"

"What can happen to one can happen to all."

DEATH:
“The man who fears death will never do anything worthy of a man who is alive; but he who knows that these were the conditions drawn up for him when he was conceived will live according to this rule and at the same time, through the same strength of mind, he will ensure that none of what happens to him will come unexpectedly.”

"It is more civilized to make fun of life rather than bewail it."

OVERALL:
Don't get caught up in novelty. Strike a balance between time with others and time on your own, each one is the antidote for the other. Life is long if you know how to use it. Take refuge in your mind and prepare yourself for all the possibilities. A strong mind cannot be upset by circumstance.

"বন্দর থেকে জাহাজে উঠার অল্পক্ষণ পরেই কোনো নাবিক যদি ঝড়ের কবলে পড়ে এবং উদ্দাম সমুদ্রে এদিক ওদিক লাফালাফি করে বা বৃত্তাকারে একই জায়গায় ঘুরে ফিরে, তাকে তো বলা যাবে না সে অনেক পথ ভ্রমণ করেছে! সে লম্বা ভ্রমণ করেনি, এদিক-ওদিক ঢুলেছে মাত্র। তেমনি, লক্ষ্যহীন শত বছরের জীবন ও অত্যন্ত ছোটই মনে হবে। কারণ মানুষ আসলে বয়সে বড়ো হয় না, জীবনকে পরিপূর্ণভাবে কাজে লাগানোর মাধ্যমে বড়ো হয়.."

• Nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing. But if death threatens these same people, you will see them praying to their doctors; if they are in fear of capital punishment, you will see them prepared to spend their all to stay alive.
• Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future.
• They reflect how pointlessly they acquired things they never would enjoy, and how all their toil has been in vain. But for those whose life is far removed from all business it must be amply long. None of it is frittered away, none of it scattered here and there, none of it committed to fortune, none of it lost through carelessness, none of it wasted on largesse, none of it superfluous: the whole of it, so to speak, is well invested. So, however short, it is fully sufficient, and therefore whenever his last day comes, the wise man will not hesitate to meet death with a firm step.
• I am not inviting you to idle or purposeless sloth, or to drown all your natural energy in sleep and the pleasures that are dear to the masses. That is not to have repose. When you are retired and enjoying peace of mind, you will find to keep you busy more important activities than all those you have performed so energetically up to now.
• The man who is not puffed up in good times does not collapse either when they change.
• There is no evil in poverty, as anyone knows who has not yet arrived at the lunatic state of greed and luxury, which ruin everything. For how little is needed to support a man! And who can lack this if he has any virtue at all? As far as I am concerned, I know that I have lost not wealth but distractions. The body's needs are few: it wants to be free from cold, to banish hunger and thirst with nourishment; if we long for anything more we are exerting ourselves to serve our vices, not our needs.
• How much happier is the man who owes nothing to anybody except the one he can most easily refuse, himself!
• In any situation in life you will find delights and relaxations and pleasures if you are prepared to make light of your troubles and not let them distress you.
• You have to get used to your circumstances, complain about them as little as possible, and grasp whatever advantage they have to offer: no condition is so bitter that a stable mind cannot find some consolation in it.
• To long either for what we cannot achieve, or for what, once gained, only makes us realize too late and after much exertion the futility of our desires. In other words, let our labour not be in vain and without result, nor the result of unworthy of our labour; for usually bitterness follows if either we do not succeed or we are ashamed of succeeding.