Seneca - Moral Letters - 78: On the Healing Power of the Mind

This is my own recording of a public domain text. It is not copied and I retain the copyright.
The Moral Letter to Lucilius are a collection of 124 letters which were written by Seneca the Younger at the end of his life, during his retirement, and written after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for fifteen years. (These Moral Letters are the same letters which Tim Ferriss promotes in the Tao of Seneca)
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Translated by Richard Mott Gummere: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_...
Notes:
“Nothing, my excellent Lucilius, refreshes and aids a sick man so much as the affection of his friends”
“There is no sorrow in the world, when we have escaped from the fear of death”
“a vision of dying has been many a man's salvation”
“Therefore a high-minded and sensible man divorces soul from body, and dwells much with the better or divine part, and only as far as he must with this complaining and frail portion”
“there is no bitterness in doing without that which you have ceased to desire.”
“Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it…in thinking it slight, you will make it slight.”
“Everything depends on opinion; ambition, luxury, greed, hark back to opinion. It is according to opinion that we suffer.”
“A man is as wretched as he has convinced himself that he is. I hold that we should do away with complaint about past sufferings”
“What benefit is there in reviewing past sufferings, and in being unhappy, just because once you were unhappy?”
“that which was bitter to bear is pleasant to have borne”
“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all, - the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.”
“Perchance some day the memory of this sorrow, Will even bring delight.” (Virgil)
“As it is, however, what most men do is to drag down upon their own heads a falling ruin which they ought to try to support”
10:28 “What blows do athletes receive on their faces and all over their bodies! Nevertheless, through their desire for fame they endure every torture, and they undergo these things not only because they are fighting but in order to be able to fight. Their very training means torture.”
“Do you think that you are doing nothing if you possess self-control in your illness? You will be showing that a disease can be overcome, or at any rate endured”
“You have something to do: wrestle bravely with disease. If it shall compel you to nothing, beguile you to nothing, it is a notable example that you display”
“Be your own spectator; seek your own applause.”
“only idle leisure is wont to make men hate their lives”
“any life must seem short to those who measure its length by pleasures which are empty and for that reason unbounded.”
“Yield not to adversity; trust not to prosperity; keep before your eyes the full scope of Fortune's power, as if she would surely do whatever is in her power to do. That which has been long expected comes more gently”
#stoicism #seneca #LettersFromaStoic #moralletterstolucilius

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[@jeffsullivan4182]

Of all of Seneca’s Letters, this is my favorite. Dealing with personal and familial illness, it’s a treasure trove of strength and inspiration.

[@josephwilliams-xb7bv]

I love all of these letters, and pretty much everything from these tapes. Please continue the amazing work. Ty.

[@michaeldacosta7504]

Thank you for this reading. I come back to it frequently. I suffer from a nerve problem which periodically flares up in bouts of pain, though thankfully I still have full function (though with some minor weakness). This letter has been of immense help

[@jsoth2675]

Thanks for the hard work man.

[@mmka5434]

Brilliant.

[@jarredgarretty]

Dope stuff man love you’re work

[@xgalarion8659]

I'll listen to this when I'm sick. For now this kinda depresses me. Thinking about death and pain does this.