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victoriagrey's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
These letters are not an easy read. The language used is poetic in nature, winding from argument to argument, with so many examples and diversions as to lose the thread at many points. Being Seneca is one of the well known stoic writers, I at least knew what the underlying themes would be and could attach what was written to that framework. It's a book I would try to read again in the future, to see if I pick up more from it, as it's the kind of writing that is so thick in the message each sentence is trying to communicate, that I can't help but feel like I've missed half of the book after having just read it.
A few quotes I enjoyed:
A few quotes I enjoyed:
- 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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Misogyny
caroloni's review against another edition
5.0
Finally got around to finishing this! I appreciated his practical wisdom and the emphasis on living your life to the fullest. Good stuff to remember!
“So it is — the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, not do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it” (2).
“So it is — the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, not do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it” (2).
leighaa's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
I appreciate Seneca makes a distinction made between existing and truly living. That said, I find the work lacking in a proper description of what it means to truly live. Seneca spends far more words identifying ways in which people waste their time than he does identifying ways to live a meaningful life. Many of the usual suspects are included on the list of time-wasters. However, to my surprise, he also includes (if I recall correctly) helping others, running businesses, and making music. He emphasizes the reward that comes with studying writings of philosophers who have come before you. To me this seems valuable yet insufficient guidance on what to do with your time rather than wasting it.
emamoretti03's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
4.75
Lettura breve ma colma di spunti di riflessione. Una lettura che consiglierei davvero a tutti
wandasingela's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of essays? Perhaps letters.
It doesn't matter what this is, I am just grateful for the chance to have been able to read it. Seneca rose me from my "slumber" and made me realise that times are fleeting, and I need to live now. He then comforted me as I unearthed things I didn't realise still bothered me. Then spoke to me about my mind, and life in general... the importance of resting, and to working towards a goal.
It doesn't matter what this is, I am just grateful for the chance to have been able to read it. Seneca rose me from my "slumber" and made me realise that times are fleeting, and I need to live now. He then comforted me as I unearthed things I didn't realise still bothered me. Then spoke to me about my mind, and life in general... the importance of resting, and to working towards a goal.
jerryx29's review against another edition
Uhh yeah, I don't know how to rate this.
Challenging read, which is good every now and then. Plenty of poignant metaphors and thought-provoking ideas. But also, sometimes Seneca writes such confusing things and goes off on these trains of thoughts that have nothing to do with the actual topic. Most annoyingly though, many things just did not make any sense to me and were even contradictory sometimes.
Maybe just reading it once, and as a young person with relatively limited experience, is just not enough to really get it.
Challenging read, which is good every now and then. Plenty of poignant metaphors and thought-provoking ideas. But also, sometimes Seneca writes such confusing things and goes off on these trains of thoughts that have nothing to do with the actual topic. Most annoyingly though, many things just did not make any sense to me and were even contradictory sometimes.
Maybe just reading it once, and as a young person with relatively limited experience, is just not enough to really get it.
godsgayearth's review against another edition
4.0
reading this a year into a pandemic seems designed to touch on raw nerves and exacerbate the feeling of youth passing one by, but in fact it's quite the opposite. it vindicates me in a way, that I don't think i would spend the past year any differently. sure, i miss the ability to go anywhere i wanted with little fear of getting sick, but the core aspects of my self, my reading, my art, remain unchanged. ever present, regardless of the pandemic or not.
what left me emotional in reading this text is Seneca's passage on the provenance and genealogy of wisdom. there is nothing quite like being touched by all those that came before me:
Of all people, they alone who give their time to philosophy are at leisure, they alone really live. For it's not just their own lifetime that they watch over carefully, but they annex every age to their own; all the years that have gone before are added to their own. Unless we prove most ungrateful, those most distinguished founders of hallowed thoughts came into being for us, and for us they prepared a way of living. We are led by the work of others into the presence of the most beautiful treasures, which have been pulled from darkness and brought to light. From no age are we barred, we have access to all; and if we want to transcend the narrow limitations of human weakness by our expansiveness of mind, there is a great span of time for us to range over. We can debate with Socrates, entertain doubt with Carneades, be at peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, and go beyond it with the Cynics. Since nature allows us shared possession of any age, why not turn from this short and fleeting passage of time and give ourselves over completely to the past, which is measureless and eternal and shared with our betters?
what left me emotional in reading this text is Seneca's passage on the provenance and genealogy of wisdom. there is nothing quite like being touched by all those that came before me:
Of all people, they alone who give their time to philosophy are at leisure, they alone really live. For it's not just their own lifetime that they watch over carefully, but they annex every age to their own; all the years that have gone before are added to their own. Unless we prove most ungrateful, those most distinguished founders of hallowed thoughts came into being for us, and for us they prepared a way of living. We are led by the work of others into the presence of the most beautiful treasures, which have been pulled from darkness and brought to light. From no age are we barred, we have access to all; and if we want to transcend the narrow limitations of human weakness by our expansiveness of mind, there is a great span of time for us to range over. We can debate with Socrates, entertain doubt with Carneades, be at peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, and go beyond it with the Cynics. Since nature allows us shared possession of any age, why not turn from this short and fleeting passage of time and give ourselves over completely to the past, which is measureless and eternal and shared with our betters?