Sundays with Seneca
Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons on the art of living from the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
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On Learning Wisdom in Old Age
In a letter known today as On Learning Wisdom in Old Age, Seneca wrote,
Hence that in man is alone a good which alone belongs to man. For we are not now seeking to discover what is a good, but what good is man’s. And if there is no other attribute which belongs peculiarly to man except reason, then reason will be his one peculiar good, but a good that is worth all the rest put together. If any man is bad, he will, I suppose, be regarded with disapproval; if good, I suppose he will be regarded with approval. Therefore, that attribute of man whereby he is approved or disapproved is his chief and only good.
You do not doubt whether this is a good; you merely doubt whether it is the sole good. If a man possesses all other things, such as health, riches, pedigree, a crowded reception hall, but is confessedly bad, you will disapprove of him. Likewise, if a man possesses none of the things which I have mentioned and lacks money, or an escort of clients, or rank and a line of grandfathers and great-grandfathers, but is confessedly good, you will approve of him. Hence, this is man’s one peculiar good, and the possessor of it is to be praised even if he lacks other things; but he who does not possess it, though he possesses everything else in abundance, is condemned and rejected.
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