“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
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Respond to this passageWhere this comes from
The moral letters to Lucilius: 124 surviving letters of practical instruction.
Seneca. Roman statesman, playwright and adviser to Nero, born around 4 BCE in Córdoba and forced to take his own life in 65 CE. His moral letters were written late, addressed to his friend Lucilius, and are the most practical writing the Stoics left behind.
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“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“No one can lead a happy life if he thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own purposes. You should live for the other person if you wish to live for yourself.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders; but what of war and the much-vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?”
— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic