If then you transfer to philosophy the time which you take away from the public service, you will not be a deserter or have refused to perform your proper task. We are all chained to Fortune: some men's chain is loose and made of gold, that of others is tight and of meaner metal: but what difference does this make? From: L. Annaeus Seneca, Minor Dialogs Together with the Dialog "On Clemency"; Translated by Aubrey Stewart, pp. Will you believe that he passed the ten intervening days before his execution without the slightest despondency? I looked at the Gutenberg Project These remarks of mine apply only to imperfect, commonplace, and unsound natures, not to the wise man, who needs not to walk with timid and cautious gait: for he has such confidence in himself that he does not hesitate to go directly in the teeth of Fortune, and never will give way to her. works support for as long as it lasted.) In all cases where one feels ashamed to confess the real cause of one's suffering, and where modesty leads one to drive one's sufferings inward, the desires pent up in a little space without any vent choke one another. These are: Serenus believes everyone should focus more on being helpful toward each other and focus less on Moreover, we ought not to allow our desires to wander far afield, but we must make them confine themselves to our immediate neighbourhood, since they will not endure to be altogether locked up. Footnotes, page numbers, and the chapter heading For sixteen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. Who dares to tell himself the truth? Forty thousand books were burned at Alexandria: some would have praised this library as a most noble memorial of royal wealth, like Titus Livius, who says that it was "a splendid result of the taste and attentive care of the kings. It is of no use for you to tell me that all virtues are weakly at the outset, and that they acquire strength and solidity by time, for I am well aware that even those which do but help our outward show, such as grandeur, a reputation for eloquence, and everything that appeals to others, gain power by time. version that I could pass around and publicize. They mind other men's business, and always seem as though they themselves had something to do. I have to confess the greatest possible love of thrift: I do not care for a bed with gorgeous hangings, nor for clothes brought out of a chest, or pressed under weights and made glossy by frequent manglings, but for common and cheap ones, that require no care either to keep them or to put them on. "Silence is a lesson learned through life's many sufferings."-. As some remedies benefit us by their smell as well as by their taste and touch, so virtue even when concealed and at a distance sheds usefulness around. Sene. This is my own narration of a public domain text, it is not copied from audible or elsewhere.Buy all the Dialogues on Amazon: https://geni.us/SenecaDialogues. What you desire, to be undisturbed, is a great thing, nay, the greatest thing of all, and one which raises a man almost to the level of a god. Let us accustom ourselves to set aside mere outward show, and to measure things by their uses, not by their ornamental trappings: let our hunger be tamed by food, our thirst quenched by drinking, our lust confined within needful bounds; let us learn to use our limbs, and to arrange our dress and way of life according to what was approved of by our ancestors, not in imitation of new-fangled models: let us learn to increase our continence, to repress luxury, to set bounds to our pride, to assuage our anger, to look upon poverty without prejudice, to practise thrift, albeit many are ashamed to do so, to apply cheap remedies to the wants of nature, to keep all undisciplined hopes and aspirations as it were under lock and key, and to make it our business to get our riches from ourselves and not from Fortune. Do something of that sort yourself: if Fortune removes you from the front rank, stand your ground nevertheless and cheer on your comrades, and if somebody stops your mouth, stand nevertheless and help your side in silence. Thus in the houses of the laziest of men you will see the works of all the orators and historians stacked upon bookshelves reaching right up to the ceiling. He was a tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. Luck is what happens when preparation . I treasure your kindness and appreciate your Reading Response: Thesis: Seneca gives his friend practical advice, based on his philosophy of stoicism, on how to achieve peace of mind (tranquillity) through a letter citing many examples and methods. At the present day a library has become as necessary an appendage to a house as a hot and cold bath. "I have decided," answered Kanus, "at that most swiftly-passing moment of all to watch whether the spirit will be conscious of the act of leaving the body." But in our quest to do the best we can, we are apt to defeat ourselves by pushing against life with the brute force of uncalibrated ambition, razing our peace of mind on the sharp-edged sense that there is always more to achieve. It will not lengthen itself for a king's command or a people's favour. "How does it helpto make troubles heavier by . You may be sure that the same thing occurs with us: we often die because we are afraid of death. Such questions were posed long ago by Seneca in his letter On The Tranquility Of The Mind where he said we should avoid " gloomy people who deplore everything and find reason to complain you must take pains to avoid. Serenus explains that he feels agitated, and in a state of unstable immobility, "as if I were on a boat that doesn't move forward and is tossed about. Seneca's advice is practical and realistic; be aware and keep a check on the unmeaning din (both inner and outer). I wanted a tool that would put each image line and text line next to each other. Similarly I assure you that these minds over which desires have spread like evil ulcers, take pleasure in toils and troubles, for there are some things which please our body while at the same time they give it a certain amount of pain, such as turning oneself over and changing one's side before it is wearied, or cooling oneself in one position after another. do you think that the example of one who can rest nobly has no value? No one could hold out against misfortune if it permanently exercised the same force as at its first onset. Yet it is better to accept public morals and human vices calmly without bursting into either laughter or tears; for to be hurt by the sufferings of others is to be forever miserable, while to enjoy the sufferings of others is an inhuman pleasure, just as it is a useless piece of humanity to weep and pull a long face because someone is burying his son. Questions are welcome. The proofreading went pretty quickly and painlessly. hide. Well, but see how each of them endured his fate, and if they endured it bravely, long in your heart for courage as great as theirs; if they died in a womanish and cowardly manner, nothing was lost: either they deserved that you should admire their courage, or else they did not deserve that you should wish to imitate their cowardice: for what can be more shameful than that the greatest men should die so bravely as to make people cowards. The mind ought in all cases to be called away from the contemplation of external things to that of itself: let it confide in itself, rejoice in itself, admire its own works; avoid as far as may be those of others, and devote itself to itself; let it not feel losses, and put a good construction even upon misfortunes. The most we can do, he argues, is accept every card life deals us, be it winning or losing, as temporarily borrowed from the deck to which it must ultimately return. On Tranquility of Mind was published in Hardship and Happiness on page 175. Seneca finishes by reminding us that the tranquility of mind can only be preserved through constant attention and care: "So here you have, my dear Serenus, the means of preserving your tranquility, the means of restoring it, and the means of resisting faults that creep up on you unawares. Monteleone translated tranquillitas animi as, mental equilibrium. Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC - AD 65), fully Lucius Annaeus Seneca and also known simply as Seneca, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, andin one workhumorist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. But I fear that custom, which confirms most things, implants this vice more and more deeply in me. Which does the most good, he who decides between foreigners and citizens (as praetor peregrinus), or, as praetor urbanus, pronounces sentence to the suitors in his court at his assistant's dictation, or he who shows them what is meant by justice, filial feeling, endurance, courage, contempt of death and knowledge of the gods, and how much a man is helped by a good conscience? Around 400 B.C., Democritus wrote a treatise On Cheerfulness (Greek: ; Peri euthymis). The superior position ho sophos (the sage) inhabits, of detachment from earthly (terrena) possibilities of future events of a detrimental nature, is the unifying theme of the dialogues. report. (Footnotes can be collected and output as a group at the end of chapter.). On Tranquility of Mind Seneca. Andrea Willis Humanities Instructor: Leila Wells Rogers 2, December, Seneca's, On Tranquility of Mind is a dialogue written to Annaeus Serenus. The term euthymia, or "cheerfulness", can mean steadiness of the mind, well-being of the soul, self-confidence. "I did not think this would happen," and "Would you ever have believed that this would have happened?" J.W. then let him prove himself a good comrade, a faithful friend, a sober guest in people's houses, at public shows, and at wine-parties. In all cases one should be careful in one's choice of men, and see whether they be worthy of our bestowing a part of our life upon them, or whether we shall waste our own time and theirs also: for some even consider us to be in their debt because of our services to them. But what difference does it make? We ought therefore to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that all the vices of the vulgar may not appear hateful to us, but merely ridiculous, and we should imitate Democritus rather than Heraclitus. Seneca's "On Tranquillity of Mind" is a profound examination of the nature of the mental realm . 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