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 Lucius Annaeus Seneca's writings and Stoic philosophy.
Seneca — On Reading Well
In a letter known today as On Discursiveness in Reading, Seneca wrote,
Judging by what you write me, and by what I hear, I am forming a good opinion regarding your future. You do not run hither and thither and distract yourself by changing your abode; for such restlessness is the sign of a disordered spirit. The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers and digest their works if you would derive ideas that shall win a firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time on foreign travel, he ends up having many acquaintances but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner. […]
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