Philosophy

Seneca

c. 4 BC to AD 65, Corduba and Rome

The Stoic statesman on time, anger, fortune, and how to live.

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Lessons

On the Shortness of Life

Seneca’s claim that life is not short but squandered - and how the busy man, hoarding everything but his hours, is the poorest of all.

On Anger

Seneca’s case that anger is not a useful tool but a temporary madness - a passion that must be prevented at the root, not merely managed once unleashed.

On Fortune and Adversity

Seneca’s teaching that no external can harm the wise - that fortune can take everything but virtue, and that hardship is not punishment but training.

On the Happy Life

Seneca’s answer to the question all ancient philosophy asks - what is the happy life? - and his Stoic insistence that it is found in virtue, not in pleasure.

Philosophy as a Way of Life

Seneca’s conviction that philosophy is not a subject to be studied but a practice to be lived - a daily training of the self toward freedom, through self-examination and the friendship of letters.

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