Sublime

“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” —SENECA, ON PROVIDENCE

L’excès du plaisir est nuisible ; dans la vertu pas d'excès à craindre : car elle est par elle-même la modération. Ce n'est pas un bien qu'une chose qui souffre de son propre accroissement.

‘Letter to Menoeceus’, contained in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book X.

Again, let us possess nothing that can be snatched from us to the great profit of a plotting foe.

“Many times an old man has no other evidence besides his age to prove he has lived a long time.” —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 3.8b

La Nature désire bien peu, l'opinion voudrait toujours plus, l'infini. Que

3. Avant tout, mon cher Lucilius, apprends de quoi il faut te réjouir. T'imagines-tu que je t'enlève bien des plaisirs, moi qui t'interdis de céder aux dons du hasard, moi qui crois devoir te défendre l'espérance, la plus douce des enchanteresses? Ah, bien au contraire, je veux que jamais la joie ne t'abandonne; je veux qu'elle naisse sous ton toit, c

“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS

“The first thing to do—don’t get worked up. For everything happens according to the nature of all things, and in a short time you’ll be nobody and nowhere, even as the great emperors Hadrian and Augustus are now. The next thing to do—consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering that your purpose is to be a good human being.