Letters from a Stoic

Seneca praises Lucilius for not moving frequently, as doing so is symptomatic with an unhealthy mind. However, he warns Lucilius that his tendency to switch between authors is dangerous. Using several comparisons, including eating food only to regurgitate it immediately after, Seneca shows that frequently changing the subject of one’s study hampers the pursuit of knowledge. Lucilius should only own as many books as he can read and should only read well-established authors.

Seneca then states that each day a person should learn something that will help them face hardships. Today he has been thinking about something he found in the writings of Epicurus (the founder of a rival philosophical school). Epicurus said, “A cheerful poverty […] is an honourable state” (34). Seneca thinks Epicurus has almost hit the mark but adds that in fact cheerful poverty is not poverty at all. A poor man is not the person who has little but the person who wants more. Someone who has what is essential and accepts that this is enough has reached the proper limit of wealth. Conversely, those who seek wealth will always be poor.