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Seneca's Morals of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency Flashcards

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · Public domain edition · 327 cards · 87 chapters

Seneca argues that happiness rests on virtue and reason rather than wealth or pleasure, and that benefits, anger, and clemency must be governed by judgment. This deck covers L'Estrange's preface and the essays' central claims about God, superstition, and Seneca's life.

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Chapter 1 · Question

Why does L'Estrange choose an abstract rather than a full translation of Seneca?

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Section 13 cards

Why does L'Estrange choose an abstract rather than a full translation of Seneca?
He gives several reasons: a translation was already done over sixty years earlier, much of Seneca is foreign to his purpose (treatises on meteors, earthquakes, rivers, Epicurean-Stoic disputes), and Seneca's excellence lies in scattered hints rather than a regulated method. L'Estrange's design is to digest and commonplace Seneca's morals so readers can find them by topic, adding nothing beyond what tacking them together requires.
Chapter 1
What political events does L'Estrange cite as evidence of hypocrisy's damage?
He points to a pious, nearly faultless prince brought to the scaffold by his own subjects, the constitution torn apart, the happiest people enslaved, temples profaned, and license given to heresy and outrage. He attributes this to hypocrites mouthing purity of the gospel, honor of the king, and liberty of the people, aided by defamatory papers aimed at the king through his ministers.
Chapter 1
What does L'Estrange say about libels and libellers, and what does he find wonderful?
He calls libels and libellers the most infamous of practices and men, unmanly sneaking instruments of mischief, the bane of human society and plague of all governments. He finds it wonderful that such engines should find credit enough to engage a party, and still more wonderful if the same trick should pass twice upon the same people, in the same age, and from the same impostors.
Chapter 1

Section 24 cards

What three professed enemies does the preface say Seneca had among the ancients?
The preface names Caligula, who called Seneca's writings "sand without lime"; Fabius, who criticized his boldness with earlier eloquence, his finical expressions, and his weak philosophy; and Agellius, who attacked his style as having a kind of tinkling but still praised his piety and good counsels.
Chapter 2
How does Fabius qualify his criticism of Seneca, according to the chapter?
Fabius charges Seneca with being too bold toward earlier eloquence, too quaint in expression, and no profound philosopher. Yet he allows Seneca was studious, learned, witty, well read, a severe reprover of vice, and divinely sententious, worth reading for his morals alone. He advises readers to distinguish where Seneca himself did not.
Chapter 2
Which lost works of Seneca does the chapter mention, and on what sources?
The chapter says poems written in banishment are gathered partly from Seneca himself but more expressly from Tacitus, who says Seneca was reproached for turning to poetry to curry favor with Nero. Jerome refers to a discourse on matrimony, Lactantius to his history and books of Moralities, Augustine to a book of Superstition, and Fabius to his Dialogues.
Chapter 2
What does Lactantius praise in Seneca's statements about God and conscience?
Lactantius, quoted in the chapter, marvels that this heathen speaks of God like a Christian: God as supreme Governor and God of all gods, using subordinate ministers; worshippers honoring images while ignoring the workman; and God as an incomprehensible Power to whom we must approve ourselves, since our souls lie open to God even when hidden from men.
Chapter 2

Section 34 cards

According to Seneca, what does God actually delight in, rather than temples or bloody sacrifices?
Seneca argues that God's pleasure lies not in stone temples or the slaughter of innocent creatures, but in the pity and devotion of consecrated hearts. He urges people to purge their minds and lead virtuous, honest lives, since a friend is always at hand. The passage is quoted approvingly by Lactantius.
Chapter 3
How does Seneca describe the images of the gods in his book against Superstitions?
Seneca writes that the holy, immortal, and inviolable gods are represented in the basest matter, without life or motion, in forms of men, beasts, fishes, and mixed bodies. These figures, called deities, would frighten a man and pass for monsters if they were animated. Augustine preserves the quotation.
Chapter 3
What does Seneca say about worshipping the rabble of deities gathered by superstition?
Seneca says a wise man observes these things for the law's sake more than for the gods, and adores this rabble of deities gathered by many ages of superstition while considering the worship a matter of custom rather than conscience. Augustine observes that the illustrious senator worshipped what he reproved and adored what he condemned.
Chapter 3
What was Seneca's family background and early education?
Seneca was born at Cordova, a Roman colony in Spain, of the Annæus family of the knightly order. His father, Lucius Annæus Seneca the Orator, came to Rome under Augustus; his mother was Helvia. His father trained him in rhetoric and forced him into law, but his genius led him to philosophy and morality.
Chapter 3

Section 44 cards

Why was Seneca banished to Corsica in the first year of Claudius?
Seneca was banished to Corsica when Julia, daughter of Germanicus, was accused by Messalina of adultery and banished as well; Seneca was charged as one of the adulterers. After eight or more years in exile he was recalled and restored to favor. His estate was partly inherited but mostly the bounty of his prince.
Chapter 4
What did Seneca tell his friends when denied a will before dying?
Denied a will by the officer, Seneca told his friends that since he could not requite them as they deserved, he could still bequeath them what he esteemed most: the image of his life. This would give them the reputation of constancy and friendship if they imitated it, and he exhorted them to firmness of mind by counsel and reproof.
Chapter 4
How did Paulina respond to Seneca's death sentence?
Paulina declared her determination to bear him company and told the executioner to do his office. Seneca replied that if she preferred an honorable death, he would not envy her example, though her reputation would be greater. Their veins were opened at the same time, but Nero ordered Paulina's death prevented, and she survived him for some years.
Chapter 4
How did Seneca's simple diet relate to Nero's poisoning attempt?
Tacitus reports that Nero corrupted Cleonicus, a freeman of Seneca's, to poison his master, but it did not succeed. It is uncertain whether the servant revealed it or Seneca avoided it by his own caution and jealousy, for he lived on a simple diet of the fruits of the earth and most commonly drank river water.
Chapter 4

Section 54 cards

How does Seneca define a benefit?
Seneca defines a benefit as a good office done with intention and judgment, with due regard to all circumstances of what, how, why, when, where, to whom, and how much. Alternatively, it is a voluntary and benevolent action that delights the giver in the comfort it brings the receiver.
Chapter 5
What three sorts of benefits does Seneca identify?
Seneca sorts benefits into necessary, profitable, and delightful. Necessary benefits deliver us from capital dangers or the fear of death, and their value is rated by the hazard. Profitable ones include money and honor. Delightful ones are things custom, use, affinity, and acquaintance have made dear, such as spouses, children, and friends.
Chapter 5
Which benefits does Seneca call the greatest, and why?
Seneca says the greatest benefits are those of good education received from parents: their care and tenderness in infancy, discipline in childhood to keep us to our duties by fear, and severity and punishment when fair means fail, without which we should never have come to good.
Chapter 5
How does Seneca distinguish absolute from vulgar benefits?
Seneca divides benefits into absolute and vulgar: the former appertain to good life, the latter are only matter of commerce. Absolute benefits are more excellent because they can never be made void, whereas all material benefits are tossed back and forward and change their master.
Chapter 5

Section 64 cards

According to Seneca, why may a son's benefit to his father exceed what he owes for being begotten?
Seneca argues that giving life is only the first and least part of a benefit, since living well matters more and virtue is the son's own. A son who saves his father's life, advances the family's reputation, or dies in his father's place confers a greater benefit than he received, because the father needed life more than the unborn son did.
Chapter 6
How does Seneca distinguish benefits, duties, and ministerial offices between master and servant?
Benefits are voluntary good offices from strangers that may be withheld without blame; duties are obligations of sons, wives, and kindred; ministerial offices belong to servants. Since the mind, not the condition, gives a benefit its value, a servant may oblige his master by doing more than expressly bound, because some things law neither commands nor forbids.
Chapter 6
What examples does Seneca give of sons who greatly benefited their fathers?
Seneca cites Scipio, who rescued his father in battle against Hannibal and later from a faction, covering him with consular honors; Aeneas, who carried Anchises through the flames of Troy; and T. Manlius, who forced a tribune at dagger-point to drop his father's prosecution. He adds that Socrates and Plato gave their obscure fathers lasting fame.
Chapter 6
What is Seneca's stated purpose in arguing that sons may oblige fathers and servants masters?
Seneca says this does not discountenance the veneration owed to parents nor make children worse, but better, stirring up generous emulation. In contests of good offices both parties are happy, the vanquished as well as the victor; it is the only honorable dispute between father and son, which shall surpass the other in benefits.
Chapter 6

Section 74 cards

According to Seneca, what makes a benefit truly a benefit?
Seneca argues the good-will of the benefactor is the fountain of all benefits—the benefit itself, or at least the stamp that makes it valuable. The obligation rests in the mind, not in the matter; the gift is only the sign and mark of it. The same reasoning applies to injuries: both receive their value from the intention, not from the thing given or done.
Chapter 7
How does Seneca use the dog example to prove intention matters?
Seneca argues even brutes can decide the question. Tread on a dog by chance, or hurt him while dressing a wound, and he passes it by as an accident or acknowledges it as a kindness. But if you merely strike at him without hurting him, he flies in your face for the mischief you barely meant.
Chapter 7
Why does Seneca say the benefit is immortal while the gift is perishable?
Seneca argues the benefit continues even when its use or matter is gone. If he redeems a friend from pirates and the friend later falls into other pirates' hands, the obligation remains the same. Fortune may deprive us of the matter of a benefit, but the benefit itself remains inviolable, since what is done cannot be rendered undone.
Chapter 7
What conditions does Seneca set for good-will to count as a benefit?
Seneca argues good-will must be accompanied by judgment and discretion; otherwise such offices are works of passion or chance, and often the greatest injuries. Good done by mistake, ignorantly, or by force is no obligation, since it was not directed to me and had no kind intention. Yet bare will without action is insufficient where means to act exist.
Chapter 7

Section 84 cards

According to Seneca, what does perfecting a benefit depend upon?
Seneca holds that while the will designs a benefit and the matter conveys it, judgment perfects it. Judgment depends on many niceties, so that the least error in the person, matter, manner, quality, quantity, time, or place spoils the whole benefit. The consideration of the person is a main point, since we are to give by choice and not by hazard.
Chapter 8
Why does Seneca say a misplacing of a benefit is worse than not receiving one?
Seneca argues the misplacing of a benefit is worse than not receiving it, because not receiving is another man's fault, while misplacing is the giver's own. A favor ill-placed is rather a profusion than a benefit, and the giver's error often excuses the receiver's ingratitude. He calls an inconsiderate bounty the most shameful of losses.
Chapter 8
What does Seneca say about giving to those who can never repay?
Seneca argues that if we give only to receive, we lose the fairest objects of charity: the absent, the sick, the captive, and the needy. When we oblige those who can never repay in kind, such as a stranger on his last farewell or a necessitous person on his death-bed, we make Providence our debtor and rejoice in the conscience of a fruitless benefit.
Chapter 8
How does Seneca answer the objection that we cannot know who will be grateful?
Seneca says he will follow probability and hope the best. He notes the sower is not sure to reap, the seaman to reach port, the soldier to win the field, nor the wedded man that his wife will be honest or children dutiful; yet we still sow, sail, bear arms, and marry. Even a known ingrate may receive small kindnesses, done carelessly as an office of humanity.
Chapter 8

Section 94 cards

What qualities make a present acceptable, according to Seneca?
Seneca advises giving something desired, sought for, and hard to find—what few have, or not in that place or season. It should be lasting and durable, like plate rather than money, or statues rather than apparel, so it serves as a monitor reminding the receiver of the obligation. It must also suit the recipient: not arms to a woman, books to a clown, or toys to a philosopher.
Chapter 9
Why does Seneca object to giving a gift that reproaches the receiver's faults?
Seneca says one should not give anything that may reproach a man for his vice or infirmity, citing false dice to a cheat or spectacles to a blind man. He also refuses to give what a man cannot receive, like throwing a ball to a man without hands. His stated aim is not to oblige the other but to free himself, making a return even if it cannot be received.
Chapter 9
How does Seneca describe the manner in which benefits should be conferred?
Seneca argues benefits should be given frankly, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation, since delay is next door to denying. The manner sweetens the benefit: it should be free of sourness, severity, contumely, or reproof, with any admonition deferred to another time. He calls a good office done harshly and with ill will a stony piece of bread—necessary to the hungry, but almost choking.
Chapter 9
What does Seneca say about the Megara ambassadors' gift to Alexander?
The Megarans offered Alexander the freedom of their city, a present they said they had made only to Hercules and himself. Alexander accepted kindly, not for the presenters' sake but because they joined him with Hercules. Seneca calls this unreasonable: Hercules conquered nothing for himself but protected the miserable, while Alexander was an intemperate young man whose virtue was merely successful temerity.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

According to Seneca, what matters most in conferring a benefit?
The author argues the manner of conferring a benefit is the noblest part, even when the benefit itself is considerable. Harshness of language, countenance, or behavior ruins it, and a flat denial is better than a vexatious delay. Benefits given with pride and ostentation are ambition rather than bounty; benevolence of mind, not the present's value, is what counts.
Chapter 10
When should favors be conferred publicly versus privately?
Seneca says public favors are rewards for great actions, such as honors and charges that give reputation. Good offices to a man in want, distress, or under reproach should be known only to the recipient, and concealed even from him if possible, since secrecy is often the main part of the benefit. One man hid money under a poor friend's pillow so he seemed to find it.
Chapter 10
How does Seneca say the value of a benefit is rated?
The author argues a benefit's value is rated by the good it does or the inconvenience it saves, measured by circumstance and occasion. Saving a man from drowning is the same life either way, but the obligation varies with hazard, trouble, willingness, and motive. Two people may give the same sum, yet one gives from his own wealth and the other borrows what he himself needs.
Chapter 10
What does Seneca say about paying physicians and tutors?
Seneca says we value the thing in some cases and the labor in others. We pay physicians and tutors only for their professional service, yet if they add care and friendship beyond their calling, watching with us and putting off other patients, they should be esteemed as near relations. It is not enough to pay fees and salary; we owe them friendship over and above.
Chapter 10

Section 114 cards

When does a later injury cancel an earlier benefit, according to Seneca?
Seneca holds that a greater injury absolves the obligation created by a benefit. His examples: a man who helps you out of a lawsuit and then commits a rape upon your daughter, or lends a little money and then sets your house on fire. In such cases the injury outweighs the benefit and the debtor becomes the creditor.
Chapter 11
Why does Seneca say a benefit done from unchangeable good-will is a greater obligation?
Some argue that being compelled to do good lessens the obligation. Seneca argues the opposite: being forced to act is one thing, but being unable to abandon the good-will is another. In the first case you owe the one who imposed the force; in the second you owe the person himself. He compares this to Providence, whose unchangeable will does not release us from what we owe it.
Chapter 11
How does Plato handle the ferryman's free passage?
The ferryman refused Plato's money, and Plato took it as honor done to himself, saying that Plato was in debt. But when Plato realized the ferryman did the same for others, he took back his words: Plato will owe nothing in particular for a benefit in common; what he owes with others, he will pay with others.
Chapter 11
How does Seneca distinguish a common obligation from a particular one?
Seneca says there is a great difference between the two. He who lends my country money obliges me only as a part of the whole. The ten slaves ransomed from the galleys owe nothing for their redemption if there were exactly ten, but they are indebted for the choice, since he might have taken ten others. Likewise, when prisoners are released by lot, part of the obligation goes to the one who made freedom possible and part to Providence for being chosen.
Chapter 11

Section 124 cards

Why does Seneca say a poor man who only wishes to repay a benefit is not overcome?
Seneca argues that where fortune is partial, it is enough that the good-will is equal. The one who affectionately wishes and endeavors to requite a benefit is invincible, like a soldier who dies with his sword in hand and his face to the enemy. The giver and receiver remain on equal terms in point of good affection, regardless of unequal means.
Chapter 12
What two errors does Seneca identify in the saying that it is shameful to be outdone in courtesy?
Seneca says the proposition errs first in implying that a good man may be overcome, and second in imagining that anything shameful can befall him. He cites the Spartans banning exercises decided by confession of the contender, the 300 Fabii being slain rather than conquered, and Regulus taken prisoner rather than overcome.
Chapter 12
Why does Seneca suggest Socrates declined Archelaus's invitation?
Seneca says Socrates excused himself as unwilling to receive greater benefits than he could requite. He suggests this may not have been pride but craft: Socrates feared being forced to accept something possibly unworthy of him, and being a man of liberty, was loath to make himself a voluntary slave.
Chapter 12
According to Seneca, what can a poor man give a wealthy benefactor in return?
Seneca says one can give good counsel, conversation that delights and profits, freedom of discourse without flattery, kind attention when the benefactor deliberates, and inviolable faith when trusted. One may also bring him to love and knowledge of truth, free him from credulity, and teach him to distinguish friends from parasites.
Chapter 12

Section 134 cards

Why does Seneca deny that a man can give or owe a benefit to himself?
Seneca argues a benefit requires two parties: giving must precede acknowledgment, and a debtor needs a creditor. Self-benefit is necessary, not voluntary, since nature prompts every man to do himself good; he returns it the instant he receives it. What would be bounty or clemency toward another is mere nature toward oneself.
Chapter 13
According to Seneca, does saving a man's son obligate the father?
No. Seneca holds the benefit goes to the son, since the kindness was directed at him; the father feels joy and comfort but lies under no strict obligation. The father may voluntarily acknowledge the debt in his son's name, but the immediate receiver is the debtor. The benefactor's intention fixes the obligation.
Chapter 13
What test does Seneca use to limit how far a benefit to one person binds others?
Seneca asks where the obligation begins and how far it extends, warning it would otherwise run boundlessly through friends, relatives, and their friends. He resolves it by the benefactor's intention and the person the kindness was directed to, not by who later benefits in consequence.
Chapter 13
How does Seneca characterize the debate over self-benefits at the chapter's end?
Seneca calls it one of those subtleties hardly worth a man's while, yet not absolutely lost: there is more trick and artifice in it than solidity, though enough diversion to pass a winter's evening and keep a heavy-headed man awake.
Chapter 13

Section 144 cards

According to the chapter, when is a person obligated by a kindness done to them?
The chapter distinguishes intent: if the giver meant the kindness for you, you are answerable for it and owe gratitude; but if it was done for the giver's own sake, you may enjoy the fruit without being obliged. The author illustrates with burying a stranger's body—if done as to your father you are beholden, but if the body was unknown, it is only public humanity.
Chapter 14
Why may an unworthy person be honored, according to the chapter?
The author argues that some may be obliged for the sake of others: a base descendant of ancient nobility may be preferred over a better man of recent standing, and reverence is owed even to the memory of eminent virtues. He cites Cicero the son made consul for his father's sake, Caligula raised for Germanicus, and Fabius Persicus preferred for his family's 300 defenders.
Chapter 14
What does the chapter say about Providence and the descendants of honorable families?
The author argues Providence is gracious even to the wicked posterity of an honorable race, since heaven's counsels are guided by wisdom, mercy, and justice. Some become kings by their own virtues, others for their ancestors' sakes, whose neglected virtues are rewarded in their children. He concludes gratitude should extend as far as the influence of heroic actions and examples.
Chapter 14
Why does the author insist a benefactor must give without by-ends?
The author argues giving for gain, profit, or any by-end destroys the intent of bounty, since it falls only on those who do not need it and perverts the charitable inclinations of princes and great men. He compares the sun, which gains nothing by traveling the universe, and Providence, which gives though full and inviolable—so benefit must be bestowed for giving's sake.
Chapter 14

Section 154 cards

What does Epicurus claim about God's relation to the world?
Epicurus argues that God gives no benefits at all, turns his back on the world, and leaves Nature to take her course without concern for us. Whether God does anything or nothing, Epicurus says he takes no notice of good or ill done below. Seneca counters this by arguing that universal human worship of a power that neither hears nor helps is otherwise inexplicable.
Chapter 15
How does Seneca use the names Bacchus, Hercules, and Mercury?
Seneca explains that the Stoics represent the functions of the Almighty Power under several appellations: as father and fountain of all beings they call him Bacchus; as indefatigable and invincible, Hercules; and in contemplation of reason, order, proportion, and wisdom, Mercury. He compares this to a debtor who changes his creditor's name but still owes the same person.
Chapter 15
Why does Seneca insist benefits must be gratuitous?
Seneca argues that all benefits must be gratuitous, with the advantage of the receiver as their end, not profit or glory for the giver. He who gives for profit gives to himself, like a physician or lawyer who works for a fee, or a grazier fattening cattle for market. That is a trade or truck rather than a benefit, and one who gives hoping for return deserves to be cozened.
Chapter 15
How does Seneca answer the objection about choosing the recipient?
Critics say that if benefit were desirable in itself it would not depend on choosing the person, and that caution about the recipient shows an eye to profit. Seneca replies that person, matter, manner, and time are circumstances absolutely necessary to the action; right judgment in all respects is required to make it a benefit. He compares it to a trust, where time and place may change how one delivers it up.
Chapter 15

Section 164 cards

How does Seneca argue gratitude should be valued, against Epicurus's objection?
Seneca argues gratitude is a virtue to be valued for itself, not for the profit commonly attached to it. He concedes that requiting one friend encourages many and procures more benefits, but says these accessions "fall in by the by." He insists he would pursue good offices even if sure they would ruin him, and compares a man who visits the sick hoping for a legacy to a raven pecking out a weak sheep's eyes.
Chapter 16
What kinds of ingratitude does Seneca distinguish, and how should each be treated?
Seneca lists curable and incurable ingratitude, plus slothful, neglectful, proud, dissembling, disclaiming, heedless, forgetful, and malicious kinds. The remedy must suit the person and offense: gentle natures may be reclaimed by authority, advice, or reproof from a father, husband, or friend; lazy men who neither deny nor return obligations need "lugging and pinching" to wake them. If all fails, treat him as a desperate debtor and let him alone.
Chapter 16
How does Seneca recommend reminding someone of a benefit, and what is the goal?
Seneca says the receiver's good must be the principal aim, whether bestowing or reminding. Assiduity of obligation strikes the conscience and memory; if one good office fails, try a second and third, since shame, occasion, or example may prevail. One good turn is "a shouting-horn to another." He forbids upbraiding and warns against wrangling, since no necessity should make a man spend time making an enemy of an ungrateful debtor.
Chapter 16
What contrast does Seneca draw between Caesar's and Tiberius's responses to reminders?
A soldier reminded Caesar of a cloak lent as a cushion and water fetched in a helmet; Caesar admitted the man but not the helmet, and the soldier revealed he had lost an eye at Munda and the helmet was cleft by a Spanish blade. Caesar took it well, an honorable and prudent refreshing of memory. Tiberius, when an old acquaintance began "You remember, Caesar," cut him off with "No, I do not remember what I WAS," since old friends were as bad as informers.
Chapter 16

Section 174 cards

According to Seneca, which form of ingratitude is the worst?
Seneca argues that forgetting a benefit is the worst form of ingratitude, worse than disowning, dissembling, or failing to requite it. He says conscience or occasion may revive the other failures, but in forgetting the very memory of the benefit is lost. He rejects the excuse that a man simply forgot, treating forgetfulness as the cause rather than the pardon of ingratitude.
Chapter 17
Why does Seneca condemn benefactors who publicly boast of their good deeds?
Seneca calls such boasting a foolish and dangerous vanity that turns a doubtful friend into a certain enemy. Reproaches and contempt set tongues wagging, and people suspect something extraordinary lies beneath. He adds that once gossip starts, no calumny fails to stick somewhere and no falsehood is so incredible that part of it will not pass for truth.
Chapter 17
How does Seneca describe the proscribed man's response to his savior's reminders?
Seneca tells of a man of quality saved by a friend of Caesar during the triumviral proscription, who kept twitting him with it and repeating that he would have gone to pot without him. The proscribed man asked him to stop or leave him as he found him, saying he was thankful enough to owe his life, but to hear it rung in his ears perpetually was death, as if he were saved only to be carried about as a spectacle.
Chapter 17
When does Seneca say it is acceptable to remind someone of a benefit?
Seneca says one should not cast a benefit in a man's teeth, and some argue an ill man will not repay even if asked while a good man repays of himself. Yet Seneca holds that if country, family, or liberty is at stake, zeal and indignation should overrule modesty, and the world should understand he did all he could not to need an ungrateful man. Necessity of receiving shall overcome the shame of recalling it, and reminding may serve both parties.
Chapter 17

Section 184 cards

According to Seneca, when is a promise to do a good office for a wicked man still binding?
Seneca argues that if you promised a good office to a wicked or ungrateful man, you are to blame whether you knew his character or not, but you must still make the promise good under due qualifications—that is, matters continuing in the same state, since no man is answerable for accidents. Circumstances such as illness, storms, or the promise turning against law or duty can discharge you, for a promise against law or duty is void in its own nature.
Chapter 18
Why does Seneca say Philip of Macedon should not have kept his promise to the soldier?
Seneca argues Philip owed the soldier nothing, and keeping the promise would have been injurious and impious and a dangerous precedent for human society—equivalent to denying fire and water to the miserable and punishing those who relieve them. The soldier had concealed his preserver and begged for that very man's estate, so Philip restored the estate to its owner and stigmatized the soldier as an example.
Chapter 18
What does Seneca say about requiting a benefactor who later betrays his country?
Seneca says he would still reckon himself obliged for such a requital as stands with his public duty: he would not furnish arms, money, credit, or levy or pay soldiers, nor support the man's party, but would gratify him at his own expense with harmless curiosities. Only if the benefactor becomes the common enemy of mankind, delighting in blood and inventing torments, does the law of reasonable nature discharge the debt.
Chapter 18
How does Seneca distinguish a benefit from a debt when dealing with an unworthy person?
Seneca says it is not with a benefit as with a debt: it is one thing to trust an ill paymaster and another to oblige an unworthy person—the one is an ill man, the other only an ill husband. He also says that if he has made a rash promise, he will in some degree punish the temerity of making it by the damage of keeping it, unless it turns very much to his shame or detriment.
Chapter 18

Section 192 cards

What distinction does Seneca draw between choosing a man and not excluding him?
Seneca says there is a great difference between choosing a person and merely not excluding him. A wise prince confers peculiar honors only on the worthy, but a public dole makes no respect of manners: a thief or traitor may claim a share like an honest man. Some benefits, if not allowed to all, could not be enjoyed by any.
Chapter 19
According to Cleanthes, when is a person guilty of ingratitude even without receiving a benefit?
Cleanthes carries the argument further: one who is wanting to a kind office, though it be no benefit, would have done the same had it been one, and is as guilty as a thief already armed and mounted with purpose to seize booty though he has not yet drawn blood. Wickedness is formed in the heart; the deed is only its discovery and execution.
Chapter 19

Section 204 cards

According to Seneca, whose fault is it if a benefit is not given, and whose if it is received ungratefully?
Seneca argues that it is another's fault if the receiver proves ungrateful, but it is mine if I fail to give. He insists we should not neglect a duty to ourselves merely because another might abuse it, and that to find one thankful man he will oblige many who are not.
Chapter 20
What does Seneca say about upbraiding or delaying a benefit?
Seneca holds that the benefactor should neither upbraid a benefit nor delay it, since the one is tiresome and the other odious. Reproaching an ungrateful person never helps: if hardened, he ignores it; if not, it turns doubtful modesty into incorrigible impudence. A generous man gives easily and contents himself with bare thanks.
Chapter 20
How does Seneca describe the proper conduct of the receiver toward the giver?
Seneca says giver and receiver share common rules: both must act cheerfully, and there should be emulation over who obliges most. The receiver should say he has received a benefit while the giver persuades himself he has not returned it; the benefactor acquits the receiver, and the receiver binds himself. Benefits are tossed like balls in a tennis court.
Chapter 20
Why does Seneca compare benefits to grain and to a house rebuilt on ashes?
Seneca argues benefits, like grain, must be followed from seed to harvest, and that as we raise a new house while the ashes are still warm, so we should keep giving after disappointment. The plow goes on after a barren year, the merchant trades again after piracy, and the mariner puts to sea after a wreck.
Chapter 20

Section 214 cards

According to Seneca, why is receiving a benefit harder than giving one?
Seneca argues the receiver has the harder role: it pains an honest, generous mind to owe affection against inclination, and one may be ashamed to own a benefit. He says he would be stricter choosing a creditor for benefits than for money, since a money debt is discharged by payment, but a benefit leaves one still in arrears. This, he says, is the foundation of friendship.
Chapter 21
What question does Seneca raise about Brutus receiving life from Caesar?
Seneca poses the school question whether Brutus, who thought Caesar unfit to live and led a conspiracy against him, could honestly have received his life from Caesar. Seneca's resolution: he might have received it, but not as a benefit, since at that rate one owes one's life to every man who does not take it away. He also criticizes Brutus's Stoic fear of the name of king.
Chapter 21
Why did Gracinus Julius refuse money from Persicus and Rebilus?
Caligula had put Gracinus Julius to death out of malice toward his virtue. Fabius Persicus, a man of great and infamous example, sent money toward public plays, and Julius refused it, saying he would not take money where he would not take so much as a glass of wine. When Rebilus sent a larger sum, Julius declined it too, saying he would take nothing from Persicus either.
Chapter 21
What does Seneca conclude about benefits forced on a person by a tyrant or superior?
Seneca says a benefit forced on one by a tyrant or superior, where refusal is dangerous, is rather obeying than receiving, since necessity destroys choice. Yet it is still a benefit if a man does good in spite of one's teeth, as it is none if one does good against one's will. One may hate and still receive a benefit; the money is no worse because a fool refuses it.
Chapter 21

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According to Seneca, who decides when a benefit should be repaid?
Seneca argues that the benefactor has the privilege of choosing when to receive a return. Hastening repayment as a discharge looks like casting off a burden, and he says it is as much a fault to receive what one ought not as not to give what one ought. The return should be ready and cheerful but not pressing.
Chapter 22
What does Seneca say about the will to be grateful when means are lacking?
Seneca argues that if one has only the will to be grateful, one is grateful. He compares this to an artist without tools, a musician without a fiddle, a brave man with bound hands, and a pilot on dry ground. The meditation of requital suffices where the means are absent, and a good conscience supports one in extremes.
Chapter 22
How does Seneca describe those who receive benefits secretly or coldly?
Seneca says some will not receive a benefit except in private, or thank you only in your ear, which he calls a kind of denying the obligation and a less hardened ingratitude. Others receive so coldly that the obligation seems to lie on the other side, or so carelessly as if they hardly knew of it. He says we should instead magnify the courtesy.
Chapter 22
What example does Seneca give of Furnius gaining favor with Augustus?
Seneca reports that Furnius gained much upon Augustus by a speech when he obtained pardon for his father, who had sided with Antony. Furnius said this grace was the only injury Caesar ever did him, since it put him under a necessity of living and dying ungrateful. Seneca uses this to show how we should aggravate, not minimize, a kindness received.
Chapter 22

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According to Seneca, what distinguishes being grateful from returning a benefit?
Seneca distinguishes good will from the actual return of a benefit: in gratitude, good will alone suffices, since that is what one side demands and the other promises, whereas in returning a benefit the effect is required. He compares this to a physician or advocate who does their best and is acquitted even if the patient dies or the client loses.
Chapter 23
What example does Seneca give of gratitude that fails to reach its object?
Seneca imagines selling his estate to ransom an imprisoned friend, then sailing through foul weather and pirate-infested waters, only to find the friend already redeemed. He argues the gratitude is still as estimable as if the friend had remained a prisoner, and even if the rescuer were himself captured and robbed, the case would be the same.
Chapter 23
What does Seneca say about the timing of receiving or requiting a benefit?
Seneca holds there are seasons when a benefit is neither to be received nor requited. Pressing a return on someone who does not desire it is unmannerly, and forcing someone to desire it is worse. He argues one should rather wish a friend powerful and happy and oneself indebted to him, and that requital requires virtue, occasion, means, and fortune.
Chapter 23

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According to Seneca, why is it wrong to wish for danger in order to prove one's ability?
The author argues it is dishonest to seek a good office through a crime, comparing it to a pilot praying for a tempest to prove his skill or a general wishing his army routed to show his command. Making a wound or disease in order to cure it is perverse ingratitude, doing harm rather than kindness, and puts the beneficiary in need of help.
Chapter 24
How does Seneca illustrate that one should not wish misfortune on one's country to gain honor?
Seneca cites Scipio, the Decii, and Æneas: Rome would owe little to Scipio had he prolonged the Punic war to finish it, or to the Decii had they first brought Rome to extremity. Æneas would not be called Pious had he wished his country's ruin to rescue his father. Rutilius preferred his country blush for his banishment than mourn for his return.
Chapter 24
Why does Seneca call ingratitude the most impious of crimes?
Seneca says ingratitude is most venial in others and most unpardonable in ourselves; it is impious because it makes us fight against our children and altars. There is hardly any notorious crime without a mixture of ingratitude. It disunites mankind and breaks the pillars of society, yet thankfulness would be the greater wonder, since men are deterred by labor, expense, laziness, or diverted by lust, envy, and pride.
Chapter 24
What does Seneca identify as the principal causes of ingratitude?
Seneca names pride and self-conceit, avarice, and envy as principal causes. The ungrateful belittle benefits as late or small, or say the giver would have given to someone else anyway. The avaricious man is naturally ungrateful, never thinking he has enough. Some pretend want of power to return a benefit; others feel a graceless shame at confessing they received one.
Chapter 24

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According to Seneca, why is it dangerous to oblige ungrateful people?
Seneca says nothing is more dangerous than to oblige such people, because when they are conscious of not paying the debt, they wish the creditor out of the way. The shame of an abused benefit produces a mortal hatred, so the more they owe, the more they hate. He adds that people follow their interest: one man is grateful for convenience, another ungrateful for the same reason.
Chapter 25
What examples of ungrateful individuals and governments does Seneca list?
Seneca names Catiline, who called in an enemy from beyond the Alps to destroy his country; Marius, raised from common soldier to consul, who gave the world over to civil bloodshed; Sylla, who slaughtered two legions after quarter given; Pompey, who split the commonwealth into a triumvirate; and Caesar, though Seneca grants he kept his word and was merciful in victory. He also notes Camillus was banished, Scipio dismissed, and Cicero exiled and plundered.
Chapter 25
Why does Seneca argue there can be no law against ingratitude?
Seneca argues that a benefit should be given, not lent, so if there is no return there is no just cause of complaint. If ingratitude were punished by law, it would discredit the obligation, since gratitude would be no virtue if there were any danger in being ungrateful. Instead, ingratitude is punished on earth only in the schools, with further punishment left to divine justice, and the ungrateful man carries a canker at his heart.
Chapter 25
Why does Seneca say mutual offices and union are necessary for human happiness and safety?
Seneca argues that without the exercise and commerce of mutual offices we can be neither happy nor safe, since only society secures us; taken one by one, we are prey to brutes and to one another. Nature brought us into the world naked and unarmed, without the teeth or paws of lions and bears, but reason and union let us defend ourselves against violence and fortune. Remove this combination and mankind falls to pieces.
Chapter 25

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What does Seneca say about requiring witnesses when giving benefits?
Seneca argues that if ingratitude were actionable, givers would need witnesses, which would overthrow the dignity of the benefit. The giver is prompted by goodness of mind, and the generosity is lessened by caution; he wishes the receiver to please himself and owe no more than he thinks fit. Better to be deceived by some than to suspect all.
Chapter 26
How does Seneca distinguish the common people from the wise?
Seneca says he does not distinguish people by the eye but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man; by 'common people' he means the man of title as well as the clouted shoe. The question of a happy life is not decided by vote—plurality of voices is an argument of the wrong, since people find it easier to believe than to judge.
Chapter 26
What does Seneca say happens to those who pursue worldly felicity?
Seneca says worldly felicity makes the head giddy, but if a man ever comes to himself again he will confess that whatever he has done he wishes undone, and that the things he feared were better than those he prayed for. He also warns against following the crowd or example rather than reason, comparing human life to a routed army where one stumble causes the next.
Chapter 26

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According to the chapter, what is the true felicity of life?
The chapter defines true felicity as being free from perturbations, understanding our duties toward God and man, and enjoying the present without anxious dependence on the future. It means not being amused by hopes or fears but resting satisfied with what one has, which is abundantly sufficient, since whoever is so satisfied wants nothing. The great blessings of mankind are said to lie within us and within our reach.
Chapter 27
How does the chapter define tranquillity and its relation to fortune?
The chapter quotes tranquillity as "a certain equality of mind, which no condition of fortune can either exalt or depress." Nothing can diminish it, since it is the state of human perfection, raising us as high as we can go and making each person his own supporter. By contrast, anyone borne up by something else may fall. It is described as a perpetual calm belonging to one who judges aright and perseveres.
Chapter 27
What does the chapter say distinguishes true joy from vulgar pleasure?
The chapter states that true joy is "a serene and sober motion," and that those who take laughing for rejoicing are miserably out. Its seat is within, and no cheerfulness compares to the resolution of a brave mind that has fortune under its feet. The pleasures of the vulgar are called ungrounded, thin, and superficial, while the others are solid and eternal. The author allows lawful pleasures and reasonable expectations but wants cheerfulness to arise from one's own soul.
Chapter 27
How does the chapter distinguish wisdom from philosophy?
The chapter compares wisdom and philosophy to avarice and money: one desires and the other is desired; one is the effect and reward of the other. To be wise is the use of wisdom, as seeing is the use of eyes and well-speaking the use of eloquence. Wisdom is defined as right understanding, a faculty of discerning good from evil, grounded on the value of things rather than common opinion.
Chapter 27

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According to Seneca, how does a wise man respond to good versus bad fortune?
Seneca states that no condition of life excludes a wise man from doing his duty: if his fortune is good he tempers it, and if bad he masters it. He exercises virtue in plenty or in poverty, in his country or in banishment, and as a commander or a common soldier. Seneca compares the wise man to keepers who tame fierce beasts: extreme difficulties, once they come to him, are perfectly tame.
Chapter 28
How does Seneca distinguish wisdom from the practical arts like tillage and navigation?
Seneca says wisdom does not teach our fingers but our minds. Fiddling, dancing, arms, and fortifications were works of luxury and discord, while wisdom instructs us in the way of nature and the arts of unity and concord. It governs life rather than supplying instruments, teaching what is truly good, evil, or only apparently so, and distinguishing true greatness from swelling vanity.
Chapter 28
What are Seneca's three degrees of proficients in the school of wisdom?
The first have learned what they ought to do but have not put it into practice; they are past the hazard of relapse but still feel the grudges of a disease. The second have subjected their appetites for a season but still fear falling back. The third are clear of many vices but not all—perhaps not covetous yet choleric, not lustful yet ambitious, despising death yet shrinking at pain.
Chapter 28
Does Seneca claim a wise man feels no grief at calamities like loss of children or country?
No. Seneca admits some accidents may affect the wise man without overthrowing him, such as bodily pains, loss of children and friends, and the ruin of one's country. He says one must be made of stone or iron not to feel these calamities, and it would be no virtue to bear them if the body did not feel them. The wise man is temperate in prosperity and resolute in adversity.
Chapter 28

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According to Seneca, what is virtue and what is its seat?
Seneca defines virtue as the perfect good that completes a happy life, the only immortal thing belonging to mortality, and knowledge of both others and itself. He describes it as invincible greatness of mind, sociable, free, steady, fearless, and valued for itself. Its seat, he says, is a pure and holy mind, and it consists in a congruity of actions impossible while we are distracted by passions.
Chapter 29
What does Seneca say makes an action good or ill?
Seneca argues it is not the matter but the virtue that makes an action good or ill. He notes that lying at ease may be worse than being tortured if one endures torment with honor and enjoys ease with infamy, and that he who is led in triumph may be greater than his conqueror. He would not seek dangers, but rather than forfeit credit, reason, or faith, he would run all extremities.
Chapter 29
How does virtue relate to loss of friends, children, and external goods?
Seneca asks whether a virtuous man would be troubled to see his children butchered, his father enslaved, and his country overrun. He distinguishes the simple loss of a blessing from a great mischief succeeding in its place: loss of health brings sickness, loss of sight brings blindness, but loss of friends and children is supplied by virtue, which fills the mind and removes desire for what one lacks.
Chapter 29
What does Seneca claim about all men's attitude toward virtue?
Seneca argues that by an impression of nature all men revere virtue: they know it and respect it though they do not practice it. Even the worst men approve it and want to be accounted virtuous, coveting the profit of wickedness while hating its imputation. They miscall their injuries benefits and cover iniquities with a pretext of justice, condemning what they commit.
Chapter 29

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According to Seneca, what two parts is virtue divided into?
Seneca divides virtue into contemplation and action: one is delivered by institution, the other by admonition; one part consists in discipline, the other in exercise. We must first learn, then practice. He adds that the sooner one applies oneself, the longer one enjoys the comforts of a rectified mind, and that there is delight even in forming it, though a different delight arises from contemplating a soul already advanced in wisdom and virtue.
Chapter 30
What does Seneca say about good purposes that are never acted upon?
Seneca argues it is still something to have virtuous meditations and good purposes even without acting: it is generous, the very adventure of being good, and the bare proposal of an eminent course of life, though beyond human frailty to accomplish. There is honor even in the miscarriage, and in the naked contemplation of it. So the good intention itself carries value, not only its successful execution.
Chapter 30
How do the Stoics regard the equality of virtues despite differing circumstances?
The Stoics hold all virtues to be equal, yet Seneca notes great variety in the matter they work upon, according as it is larger or narrower, illustrious or less noble. All good men are equal as they are good, but one may be young, another old; one rich, another poor; one eminent, another obscure. Virtue is open to servants and exiles as well as princes, and no difficulty excuses its exercise.
Chapter 30
What does Seneca say about judging a person by a single action?
Seneca says we should not value ourselves upon a day, an hour, or any one action, but upon the whole habit of the mind. Some men do one thing bravely but shrink at another; they bear up against poverty yet flinch at infamy. In such cases we commend the fact and despise the man. The soul is never in the right place until delivered from the cares of human affairs.
Chapter 30

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Which historical figures does Seneca cite as unrecognized or persecuted until late?
Seneca notes Democritus was long thought mad and Socrates had little esteem at first. Cato was affronted, condemned, and rejected, and the people only knew his value after losing him. Rutilius's integrity would have been forgotten but for his sufferings. Epicurus and Metrodorus were almost wholly unknown even where they lived until death.
Chapter 31
How does Seneca divide philosophy, and what does each part concern?
Seneca divides philosophy into moral, natural, and rational. Moral philosophy concerns manners and is split into justice, arising from estimating things and men, and into affections and actions. Natural philosophy studies corporeal and incorporeal things, causes and effects, and the cause of causes. Rational philosophy divides into logic, which treats words, sense, and order, and rhetoric, which treats words and their meanings.
Chapter 31

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According to Seneca, what does philosophy give us beyond mere life?
Seneca states that it is nature's bounty that we live, but philosophy that we live well, which he calls a greater benefit than life itself. He adds that philosophy is also Heaven's gift as to the faculty, but not the science, since wisdom and virtue require a tutor and industry; no one is born wise, though vice is easily learned without a master.
Chapter 32
Why did Seneca give up eating flesh, and why did he resume?
Influenced by Sextius, who held that Nature provides sustenance without blood and that killing creatures hardens the heart, Seneca gave up flesh for a year and found it easy and pleasant. He resumed because his abstinence was imputed as superstition to the Jews, and his father brought him back to his old custom so he would not seem tainted by it.
Chapter 32
How does Seneca describe the difference between philosophy's splendor and fortune's?
Seneca argues philosophy shines with an original light while fortune shines with a borrowed one. Philosophy makes us happy and immortal, since learning outlives palaces and monuments. The wise man's house is safe though narrow, with no noise, furniture, porter, or mercenary business, because fortune has nothing to do where she has nothing to look after.
Chapter 32
What does Seneca say about a philosopher's bodily strength and pursuits?
Seneca holds that a philosopher may have strength of body as well as mind, but if he runs or throws the sledge, that should not be ascribed to his wisdom, since it is common to the greatest of fools. He does some things as a wise man and others as a man. He studies to fill his mind rather than his coffers, knowing gold and silver were mingled with dirt until avarice or ambition parted them.
Chapter 32

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What value does Seneca grant the liberal sciences, and what limit does he set?
Seneca says he has little esteem for anything ending in profit or money, yet allows the liberal arts are beneficial insofar as they only prepare the understanding without detaining it. They are rudiments of wisdom, to be learned when the mind can do nothing better, and they do not claim to make us virtuous, only to give an aptitude for virtue.
Chapter 33
How does Seneca contrast the grammarian's and philosopher's work with what truly matters?
The grammarian's business ends in syntax, history, or scanning verse; congruity of periods and counting syllables do nothing to tame passions or repress lusts. The philosopher proves the sun's size, but its true dimensions belong to the mathematician. Seneca argues geometry and music are useless unless they teach us to master hopes and fears.
Chapter 33
What does Seneca say about astrological prediction of events?
Seneca says the astrologer reports Saturn and Mars in opposition, but their courses are fixed by unchangeable fate. Either the stars produce all effects or they merely signify them: if they produce, knowing what must happen does us no good; if they only signify, foreseeing what we cannot avoid avails nothing. Whether we know or not, the event is the same.
Chapter 33
Why does Seneca reject subtle disputations in favor of curing the mind?
Seneca argues subtle disputations are sport for wits, fitter to be contemned than resolved. He compares wrangling over words to curling a periwig while the house burns, or asking what play is on when sent for a midwife. Our duty is the cure of the mind, not its delight; we have the words of wisdom without the works, turning philosophy into a pleasure given as a remedy.
Chapter 33

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According to Seneca, what two causes must be removed for precepts to work?
Seneca identifies the causes of our rashness and dullness as false admiration and false fear. He argues that giving good advice is not enough unless we remove what hinders its benefit, since lust or apprehension can overrule what a man knows he ought to do.
Chapter 34
Why does Seneca say knowing what virtue is must precede praising it?
Seneca argues it is useless to set a high esteem on prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice unless we first know what virtue is: whether it is one or more, whether having one means having all, and how they differ. Precepts are idle until we know what opinion to hold of things.
Chapter 34
How does Seneca distinguish precepts from mere admonition?
Seneca says precepts are of great weight, and a few at hand do more than whole volumes of cautions we cannot find. Contracted into sentences they strike the affections; admonition only blows the coal, exciting virtue we already have but know not where it lies. Precepts nourish and augment the understanding.
Chapter 34

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What three things should be examined before undertaking any enterprise?
Seneca advises examining, first, our own strength; second, the enterprise itself; and third, the persons with whom we have to deal. He stresses the first as most important, since we tend to overvalue ourselves and reckon we can do more than we can. He illustrates with examples: a would-be speaker who fails as soon as he opens his mouth, and a bashful man unfit for public business.
Chapter 35
How does Seneca suggest a man test the firmness of his mind?
Seneca advises setting apart certain days to practice virtues: mortify oneself with fasting, coarse clothes, and hard lodging, then ask, 'Is this the thing now that I was afraid of?' Thus in security one prepares against hazards, and in plenty against want. He notes many great and wise men tested their moderation by abstinence to the highest degree of hunger and thirst.
Chapter 35

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Where does Seneca say felicity is actually found, and what does a good conscience do?
Seneca argues felicity is not in veins of earth dug for gold nor the sea floor fished for pearls, but in a pure, untainted mind. A good conscience—the testimony and reward of a good life—fortifies the mind against fortune once a person masters passions, places security within himself, is content with his condition, and regards death as no evil in itself but only the end of man.
Chapter 36
How does Seneca contrast a good and a guilty conscience regarding witnesses and punishment?
Seneca argues a good conscience fears no witnesses and is a continual feast, while a guilty conscience is anxious even in solitude. Wickedness may escape the law but not conscience, since private conviction is the first and greatest punishment; the guilty live in perpetual terror, punish themselves while expecting punishment, sleep painfully, and cannot discuss another's wickedness without recalling their own.
Chapter 36
What does Seneca say about the soul, the body, and the limits of our knowledge of the soul?
Seneca argues the body is the clog and prisoner of the mind, persecuted by punishments, violence, and disease, while the mind itself is sacred and eternal, exempt from actual impression. He says we know we have a soul but are utterly ignorant of what it is, how, and from whence; we only understand that good and ill are under the mind's dominion and a clear conscience brings inviolable peace.
Chapter 36

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According to Seneca, what nightly practice brings blessed sleep and tranquillity?
Seneca says we should call ourselves to account every night, asking what infirmity we mastered, what passion opposed, what temptation resisted, and what virtue acquired. He describes his own custom of reviewing each day's words and actions once the candle is out, admonishing and forgiving himself. He argues vices will abate if brought daily to such review, and that this self-scrutiny yields tranquillity, liberty, and greatness of mind.
Chapter 37
Why does Seneca warn against too easily believing oneself?
Seneca warns it is dangerous to believe oneself too suddenly or easily, because we are our own greatest flatterers. He urges us to examine, observe, and inspect our own hearts rather than learn self-knowledge from others. He illustrates with his own nightly confession of being too hot in a dispute, noting that not all truths are to be spoken at all times, and resolving to do better.
Chapter 37
What does Seneca say makes a man valuable, using the sword and ship analogies?
Seneca argues it is not health, nobility, or riches that justify a wicked man, nor their absence that discredits a good one. Virtue is the sovereign blessing that makes its possessor valuable without anything else. He compares a man to a ship, whose excellence is sailing tight and strong rather than painting or gilding, and to a sword, where the edge and temper of the blade matter, not the richness of the scabbard.
Chapter 37
How does Seneca describe the two republics and a good man's duty to serve them?
Seneca says there are two republics: the great one of human nature and the lesser one where we were born. Some serve both, some only the greater, some only the lesser. The greater may be served in privacy, solitude, and contemplation, perhaps better than otherwise, but Nature intended us to serve both. A good man may serve the public, a friend, and himself in any station—by sword, gown, bar, or counsel at home.
Chapter 37

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According to Seneca, what does the soldier do when he can no longer use his hands?
Seneca says the common soldier, when he cannot use his hands, fights with his looks, his example, his encouragement, his voice, and his clamor, standing his ground even after losing his hands. In any condition he still discharges the duty of a good patriot. Seneca adds that even one who spends his time well in retirement gives a great example.
Chapter 38
How did Stilpo answer Demetrius when asked what he had lost at Megara's capture?
Stilpo replied, "Nothing, for I had all that I could call my own about me." Though the enemy had taken his patrimony, children, and country, he counted these as adventitious goods under fortune's command. He said he had saved his justice, courage, temperance, and prudence, showing it was easier to overcome a nation than one wise man.
Chapter 38
How does Seneca describe the wise man's attitude toward what fortune lends him?
Seneca says the wise man regards himself as precarious and only lent to himself, yet values himself no less because he is not his own; he cares for what is entrusted to him as an honest man should. When the lender calls everything back, it is not a loss but a restitution, and he should return his mind better than he received it.
Chapter 38
What does Seneca say distinguishes an exalted mind from a mean one?
Seneca argues the upper region of the air admits neither clouds nor tempests; thunder, storms, and meteors form below. Likewise a mean mind is rude and tumultuary, while an exalted mind is modest, venerable, composed, and always quiet in its station. He concludes it is conscience that pronounces whether a man is happy or miserable.
Chapter 38

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How does Seneca answer the objection that Providence lets good men suffer and wicked men prosper?
Seneca compares God to a good father who tries and hardens those he loves, while letting the rest live in license like slaves. God gives the most generous spirits the hardest lessons, and adversity should be seen not as cruelty but as a contest that strengthens virtue, since familiarity with danger brings contempt of it.
Chapter 39
What examples does Seneca give of Fortune testing great men?
Seneca says Fortune is like a swordsman who scorns a fearful opponent, and names Mucius tried by fire, Rutilius by exile, Socrates by poison, and Cato by death. He argues there is no honor in victory without danger, and that great examples are found only in adverse fortune and bad times.
Chapter 39
How does Seneca describe Regulus's suffering compared with Mæcenas?
Regulus was thrown into a case studded with pointed nails and had his eyelids cut off to keep him awake, yet Seneca says Mæcenas was not happier on his bed than Regulus in his torments. The world, Seneca argues, still prefers Regulus to Mæcenas, and Regulus counted himself singled out to prove the force of human nature.
Chapter 39
According to Seneca, how should we regard calamities like sickness, poverty, and loss of children?
Seneca argues we should see them as providential, as the tribute of life that comes with old age, and as trials that show virtue like fire tests gold. He says we should not merely submit to God but assent and obey out of duty, and that some afflictions are cures, turning misery to our advantage.
Chapter 39

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According to Seneca, are fortune's favors and misfortunes good or evil?
Seneca argues they are neither good nor evil, since God permits sickness, health, and other accidents of fortune indifferently to both good and evil men. He compares this to honest men bearing arms and receiving wounds while the wicked sleep safely, and concludes that affliction may befall a good man but never evil, since contraries cannot mix.
Chapter 40
What does Seneca say about how God treats good men?
Seneca argues God loves good men with a masculine love, turning them loose to injuries and indignities, like a generous father who raises children amid labors, toils, and dangers rather than a fond mother who makes them weak and spiritless. God delights to see a brave man wrestle evil fortune and keep his footing while the world is disordered.
Chapter 40
How does Seneca say a person should respond to necessity?
Seneca advises submission and stillness rather than struggle, since the more we fight necessity the tighter the knot draws, like a bird that flutters harder in the snare and is caught the surer. He cites Demetrius, who said that had he known Heaven's will beforehand he would have offered himself, and holds that God's proceedings are unquestionable and his decrees not to be resisted.
Chapter 40
What does Seneca identify as impediments to a happy life in Chapter IX?
Seneca says some people live with no design at all, carried like straws on a river, while others deliberate only on parts of life and not the whole, which he calls a great error since no one can take aim without a mark. He also warns against tormenting oneself with past suffering or future fears, and against levity of mind, which he says adds inconstancy to iniquity.
Chapter 40

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According to Seneca, what alone makes the mind invincible and out of fortune's reach?
Seneca argues that only philosophy makes the mind invincible and places it beyond the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short. Philosophy also reclaims the rage of lusts and sweetens the anxiety of fears. Changing climate or place cannot remove heaviness of heart; the change must be of mind, since vices travel with the traveler.
Chapter 41
What does Seneca say about changing places to escape one's disquiets?
Seneca argues that it is not the place we weary of but ourselves; vices go along with us and we carry the causes of our disquiets within. Changing countries in this case is not traveling but wandering. He quotes that he who cannot live happily anywhere will live happily nowhere, and reports Socrates telling a traveler he was never bettered because he traveled with himself.
Chapter 41
How does Seneca describe the restless vice that drives people from one thing to another?
Seneca says some are never at quiet and some always so, and both are to blame: one is restlessness, the other drowsy sloth. Motion and rest should take turns according to nature, which made day and night. He notes a pruriginous fancy that makes some delight in labor and uneasiness, like clawing an itch until the blood starts.
Chapter 41
What does Seneca say about levity versus pertinacity as enemies of quiet?
Seneca argues levity is a pernicious enemy to quiet, and pertinacity a great one too: the one changes nothing, the other sticks to nothing, and which is worse may be a question. He adds that we often beg for things we would refuse if offered, and that this easiness of asking is justly punished by equal facility in granting.
Chapter 41

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According to Seneca, what is the sovereign remedy against all misfortunes?
Seneca states that constancy of mind is the one sovereign remedy against all misfortunes, since changing parties and countenances makes a man look driven by the wind. He argues nothing external—violence, reproach, contempt, or calamity great or small—can make a wise man quit his ground. Our error is judging the wise by the measures of the weak, since we assume others cannot do what we cannot do ourselves.
Chapter 42
Why does Seneca say a disguised life is uneasy?
Seneca argues that a man who seems to be what he is not must keep perpetual guard over himself and live in fear of discovery, taking every man who looks at him for a spy, besides the trouble of playing another man's part. He concludes it is better to be contemned for simplicity than to lie perpetually on the torture of a counterfeit, provided simplicity is not confused with negligence.
Chapter 42
What does Seneca mean by never pronouncing a man happy who depends on fortune?
Seneca argues it is preposterous to place the good of a reasonable creature in unreasonable things, since fortune has the same power over princes, empires, nations, cities, and private men. He advises expecting everything and despairing of nothing, hoping the best and providing for the worst, noting that what may happen at any time may happen this very day.
Chapter 42
How does Seneca use the burning of Lyons as a lesson?
Seneca cites the burning of Lyons, consumed in twelve hours in the depth of peace, as proof that we are never safe, and urges readers to provide against all possibilities within fortune's power. He notes the calamity was almost without example, with so many rarities destroyed in one night, and that it took less time to burn than to tell the story.
Chapter 42

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According to Seneca, why should peace and felicity be dreaded more than violence?
The author argues that peace and felicity are more to be dreaded than violence because they take us unprovided. In a state of peace we should do the duty of men in war and tell ourselves, "Whatsoever may be, will be." Preparing for a shipwreck in the port and a tempest in a calm makes future calamities easier to endure, since contemplating them in advance familiarizes us with them.
Chapter 43
How does Seneca describe Fortune's gifts and their effect on receivers?
Seneca says Fortune's gifts are lent, not owned: what we receive gratis we must return without complaint. She throws honors, riches, and favors among us only to take them back by violence or treachery, so they often damage the receiver. Her bounties are snares and lime-twigs; we think we take, but we are taken. They provoke appetite without filling or quieting us.
Chapter 43
What does Seneca mean by calling riches, pain, and death "middle and indifferent things"?
Seneca argues these things are neither good nor bad in themselves, but only as virtue influences them, like a room that is dark or light only as day and night render it. Riches, strength, beauty, honor, command, and likewise pain, sickness, banishment, and death are indifferent. Weeping or exulting over them alike is weakness; one should neither be depressed by Fortune's injuries nor dazzled by her favors.
Chapter 43
How does Seneca use Zeno's response to losing his goods, and what lesson follows?
When told all his goods were drowned, Zeno said, "Why then, Fortune has a mind to make me a philosopher." Seneca uses this to show it is a great matter to advance the mind above Fortune's threats or flatteries, for whoever once gets the better of her is safe forever. He adds that if a man cannot mend his fortune, he may mend his manners and put himself out of her reach.
Chapter 43

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How does Seneca characterize the pleasures of the palate and those devoted to them?
Seneca compares palate pleasures to Egyptian thieves that strangle those they embrace, calling the luxury of Nomentanus and Apicius a "merry madness." He argues such delights come with heavy, anxious thoughts and repentance, and that their felicities are full of disquiet, neither sincere nor well grounded, requiring one pleasure to support another.
Chapter 44
Why does Seneca say Apicius poisoned himself, and what does this prove about wealth?
Apicius spent a prodigious fortune on his belly and poisoned himself for fear of starving, though he still had 250,000 crowns. Seneca uses this to show it is the mind, not the sum, that makes a man rich: Apicius counted himself a beggar with all his treasure and took poison to avoid a condition another would have prayed for.
Chapter 44
According to Seneca, how do beasts compare to humans regarding sensual pleasure?
Seneca argues it is a shame to place felicity in appetites stronger in brutes: beasts eat with a better stomach, have more satisfaction in lusts, and enjoy pleasures without scandal or remorse. If sensuality were happiness, beasts would be happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not the flesh.
Chapter 44
What does Seneca say about the effects of many dishes and compounded foods?
Seneca says many dishes have made many diseases: compounded dishes produce compounded diseases requiring compounded medicines. From excess come paleness, trembling, weakness of joints, gout, fevers, and putrid ulcers — punishments of luxury. He notes that while bodies were hardened by labor, food was plain and simple; simple vices are curable by simple counsels.
Chapter 44

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How does Seneca describe drunkenness and its effects on character?
Seneca calls drunkenness a voluntary madness that does not make men vicious but reveals them as such. It removes shame, makes the insolent prouder and the cruel fiercer, and emboldens all sorts of mischief. He cites Alexander killing Clytus while drunk, and notes drunkenness has overcome nations and cities that resisted siege.
Chapter 45
According to Seneca, how does luxury progress and what does it ultimately enslave?
Seneca says luxury steals in by degrees: first excessive care of the body, then household furnishings, then the house itself, and finally excesses of the table. Desiring superfluities leads to wickedness, and men hand their minds over to their bodies, so appetites that were servants become masters. He argues luxury is as insatiable as avarice.
Chapter 45
What does Seneca say about a voluptuous person's fitness for virtue and public life?
Seneca argues a voluptuous person can be neither a good man, a good patriot, nor a good friend, because he is carried away by appetites and ignores that man's lot is the law of Nature. He contrasts this with the good man who, like a good soldier, stands his ground, accepts wounds, and obeys God, which Seneca calls perfect liberty.
Chapter 45

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According to Seneca, how does one become truly rich?
Seneca argues that the person who would be truly rich must not increase his fortune but retrench his appetites. Riches, he says, are superfluous and mean, of little more value to the possessor than to the onlooker. He adds that no man can possess all things, but any man may contemn them, and that contempt of riches is the nearest way to gaining them.
Chapter 46
What comparison does Seneca draw between old men and children?
Seneca argues that old men differ from children only in the objects of their craving: children cry for nuts and apples, old men for gold and silver. Children set up mock courts in jest, old men in earnest; children build houses of clay, old men of marble. Thus the works of old men are but the progress and improvement of children's errors, and they should be corrected like children.
Chapter 46
How does Seneca describe the misery avarice brings?
Seneca argues there is no avarice without punishment beyond what it is to itself. Money torments more in possession than in pursuit: fear of losing it is a trouble, the loss a greater, and opinion makes it greater still. Even without direct loss, the covetous man loses what he does not get. The people call the rich man happy, yet comparing what he has to what he covets, he is a beggar.
Chapter 46
How does avarice make people malevolent toward others?
Seneca argues avarice makes us not only unhappy but malevolent: the soldier wishes for war, the farmer for dear corn, the lawyer for dissension, the physician for a sickly year, and the dealer in curiosities for luxury and excess, making fortunes from the age's corruptions. High winds and fires make work for builders, and one man lives by another's loss. Demades of Athens condemned a funeral-goods seller for wishing to profit by mortality.
Chapter 46

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According to Seneca, what is the difference between hope and fear?
Seneca argues that hope and fear are inseparable passions that look forward and are solicitous for the future, coupled like guard and prisoner. Without fear, hope would be certainty; without hope, fear would be despair. Which name we give depends on which is stronger. He calls hope the more plausible weakness of the two.
Chapter 47
What does Seneca say about anticipating misfortune?
Seneca argues it is foolish to be miserable beforehand for fear of misery to come, since one loses the present in expectation of the future. The fear of losing something is as bad as the loss itself. He advises forecasting inconveniences but not being timorous, and says it is time enough to lament when misfortune actually comes.
Chapter 47
How does Seneca describe the effects of felicity and greatness?
Seneca argues felicity is an unquiet thing that torments itself and puzzles the brain, making some ambitious, others luxurious, puffing up some and softening others; like wine, some heads bear it better, but it dissolves all. Greatness stands on a precipice, and prosperity that carries a man beyond his poise overbears and dashes him to pieces.
Chapter 47
What examples does Seneca give of ambition driving famous men?
Seneca argues it was mad love of deceitful greatness, not virtue or reason, that animated Pompey in his wars abroad and at home, hurrying him to Spain and Africa when he was already great in everyone's opinion but his own. Julius Cæsar shared the same motive, unable to brook a superior even when the commonwealth had submitted to two already.
Chapter 47

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According to Seneca, what happens when we fear future ills?
Seneca argues that the ills we fear we may suffer, we suffer already in the very fear of them. Like a weak mind that fancies misfortunes, we make ourselves wretched before our time, complaining of an affliction we do not feel. He calls this a voluntary disease and an industrious contrivance of our own unhappiness.
Chapter 48
What three kinds of things does Seneca say are most to be feared?
Seneca identifies want, sickness, and violences imposed by a strong hand. He says the last has the greatest force because it comes with noise and tumult, while poverty and disease steal upon us silently. Yet he notes many who would meet death generously are overcome merely by the manner of it.
Chapter 48
How does Seneca say foresight of calamities affects their violence?
Seneca argues that the foresight of calamities to come breaks the violence of them. He asks why one should wonder at being hit at last, seeing so many fall about us daily, and calls it madness to cry 'Who would have dreamed of this?' He also says contemplating troubles makes them seem slighter in act than in thought.
Chapter 48
What does Seneca say about the Stoic claim that torments are contemptible?
Seneca reports that the Stoics hold all torments that draw groans are in themselves trivial and contemptible. But setting aside these high-flown expressions, however true, he proposes to discourse at the rate of ordinary men and not make ourselves miserable before our time, since what we apprehend as at hand may never come to pass.
Chapter 48

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According to Seneca, what does death do for slaves, exiles, and all mortals?
Seneca argues death sets the slave at liberty, carries the banished man home, and places all mortals on the same level. He says that without death, life itself would be a punishment, and the prospect of death consoles him against tyrants, tortures, and the injuries of life. He calls death the greatest providence in nature toward all ages and conditions.
Chapter 49
Why does Seneca say the prayers of parents and nurses can harm us?
Seneca argues that well-meaning prayers can be pernicious because those praying take evil for good and wish us things we should fear rather than want. He says we are undone if their prayers are heard, and should pray they are not, since such wishes are effectively well-meaning curses. He adds we are hurt equally by some who pray for us and others who curse us.
Chapter 49
According to Seneca, why does gaining what we desire fail to satisfy us?
Seneca argues we are deceived by rumor and misunderstand the true state of things. What seemed great at a distance proves low when reached, and what seemed too much when wished for proves too little when obtained. He says felicity is not greedy but little and narrow, unable to satisfy us, and what we gain turns out ill, empty, or less than expected.
Chapter 49

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According to Seneca, why were early humans innocent rather than truly virtuous?
Seneca argues early humans were innocent because they were ignorant, not because they possessed virtue. He distinguishes not knowing how to offend from not being willing to do it. They had only images and seeds of virtue, since virtue itself comes by institution, learning, and study, perfected by practice. He calls them rather happy than wise.
Chapter 50
What does Seneca say about the claim that philosophers do not live as they preach?
Seneca concedes philosophers may flatter superiors, gather estates, and grieve losses like others, but argues it is still some virtue to condemn oneself and be better than the worst. He says he speaks of virtue, not himself, and is more offended by his own vices. He notes Plato, Epicurus, Zeno, and Cato faced similar attacks.
Chapter 50
How does Seneca describe the state of mankind before covetousness and private property?
Seneca depicts an age when Nature's benefits were shared promiscuously, with no avarice, envy, or poverty. The earth's fruits were divided without want or excess, and each person cared for neighbors as for themselves. He says poverty entered when some desired more than their share and lost title to the rest.
Chapter 50
What does Seneca say about Epicurus and those who cite him to justify pleasure?
Seneca says Epicurus, who limits pleasure to nature as the Stoics limit virtue, is undoubtedly right. Those who cite him to authorize voluptuousness greatly mistake him, seeking good authority for an evil cause, since sloth, gluttony, and lust have no affinity with his precepts. Seneca says Epicurus looks effeminate at first but is a brave man in womanish dress.
Chapter 50

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According to Seneca, what is the whole duty of man reduced to?
Seneca reduces the whole duty of man to two points: abstinence and patience—temperance in prosperity and courage in adversity. He notes the first has already been treated and the second follows in course. This framing structures the discussion of constancy of mind that follows.
Chapter 51
How do the Stoics differ from Epicurus on bearing injuries?
Epicurus holds that a wise man will bear all injuries, but the Stoics refuse to call such things injuries at all. Seneca compares them to two gladiators: one receives wounds yet holds his ground, the other calls blood a mere scratch and lets no one part them. An injury must be done, but need not be received.
Chapter 51
What makes an act wicked, according to the chapter?
Seneca argues it is the intention, not the effect, that makes the wickedness. A man who gives poison too weak to kill is still guilty; one who strikes and misses is as much a murderer as if he hit the heart. A thief has the will before his hand is dipped in blood, and sacrilege lies in the intention of laying violent hands on holy things.
Chapter 51
How does Fabricius exemplify moderation against Pyrrhus?
Pyrrhus tempted Fabricius with money to betray his country, and Pyrrhus's physician offered Fabricius money to poison his master. Fabricius was too brave to be overcome by gold or by poison: he refused the money and warned Pyrrhus of the treachery, even in the heat of a licentious war. He valued himself on his poverty, as much above riches as above poison.
Chapter 51

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What examples does Seneca give of great men overcoming misfortune?
Seneca cites Metellus, who suffered exile resolutely, and Rutilius, cheerfully; Socrates, who disputed in the dungeon and refused escape though he could have made it. He also names Mucius Scevola, who burnt his right hand to ashes after killing the secretary instead of Porsenna, holding his arm in the flame until enemies removed it.
Chapter 52
How does Seneca describe Cato's last night and death?
Seneca says Cato took Plato to bed with him and his sword at his bed's head, resolving that no man could say he either killed or saved Cato. After fighting for his country's liberty, he cast himself on his sword; when physicians bound the wound, he tore it up again and expired with the same greatness of soul he lived. Seneca argues he valued losing his life and missing an office at the same rate.
Chapter 52

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According to Seneca, what is the proper attitude toward the misfortunes we are all born to?
Seneca argues we should never wonder at anything we are born to, since all share the same condition and no one has reason to complain. He says it is equal to submit to the law of mortality, enduring winter colds, summer heats, bad air, and bodily disease. We should bear ill accidents like unkind seasons or diseases, and may even count the actions of wicked men among such accidents.
Chapter 53
How does Seneca distinguish the truly composed man from those who merely seem wise?
Seneca says some called wise take up private resolutions against Fortune but cannot follow through, being dazzled by splendor or frightened by terrors. Others close and grapple with Fortune and come off victorious. The composed man stands all shocks—violences, flatteries, menaces—without perturbation, while the fearful grow curious about what they hear abroad.
Chapter 53
What examples does Seneca give of men who overcame Fortune, and what do they show?
Seneca lists Mucius overcoming fire, Regulus the gibbet, Socrates poison, Rutilius banishment, Cato death, Fabricius riches, Tubero poverty, and Sextius honors. He also recounts Socrates enduring poverty, a turbulent wife, the thirty tyrants, and a death sentence by poison that never altered his countenance. These show virtue meeting each kind of Fortune and still prevailing.
Chapter 53
What does Seneca say about Fortune and the mind's role in happiness or misery?
Seneca argues it is an error to attribute good or ill to Fortune, though we may attribute the matter of it; we are ourselves the occasion, effectively the artificers of our own happiness or misery. The mind is above fortune: if evil, it makes everything else so; if right and sincere, it corrects what is wrong and softens what is hard with modesty and courage.
Chapter 53

Section 544 cards

According to Seneca, what does the choice of company require, and why?
Seneca holds that the love of society is natural, but the choice of company is a matter of virtue and prudence. Noble examples stir people to noble actions, and the history of great souls inspires generous thoughts. Conversely, conversing with the proud makes one puffed up, and a lustful acquaintance makes a man lascivious, so the way to avoid wickedness is to withdraw from its examples.
Chapter 54
What examples does Seneca give of places or people corrupted by loose surroundings?
Seneca warns that a place of ill example can endanger a good man, since great examples give both authority and excuse to wickedness. He cites Hannibal, who was unmanned by the looseness of Campania: a conqueror by arms, he was overcome by pleasures. Seneca adds he would as soon live among butchers as among cooks, though a man may be temperate anywhere.
Chapter 54
Why does Seneca prefer personal conversation to writing for moral improvement?
Seneca argues that writing does well, but personal discourse and conversation do better, because men give great credit to their ears and take stronger impressions from example than from precept. He notes Plato got more from Socrates' manners than his words, and that familiarity with Epicurus, not the school itself, made Metrodorus, Hermachus and Polyænus famous.
Chapter 54
What does Seneca say about the danger of too much acquaintance?
Seneca acknowledges that we instinctively covet society and avoid solitude, but warns that the more acquaintance, the more danger, and that not one man in a hundred is to be trusted with himself. Company may interrupt us even if it cannot alter us, and tender natures among the people will likely go over to the major party.
Chapter 54

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According to Seneca, what is the best way to handle popular company and crowds?
The author argues the best course is to retire and associate only with those who may improve us and whom we may improve, since teaching and learning are mutual. He warns that much company is dangerous: he never returns home the same man, as some ordered passion is discomposed or a subdued one revives, like a tender body relapsing at the least breath of air.
Chapter 55
What distinction does Seneca draw between visits and true friendship?
Seneca insists friends are not numbered by visits, and the decencies of ceremony and commerce should not be confused with the offices of united affection. He notes Caius Gracchus and Livius Drusus introduced ranking visitants into first, second, and third rate friends, but none were true. He warns against seeking a friend in a palace or trying him at a feast.
Chapter 55
What does Seneca say about deliberation and reserve in forming friendships?
The author argues there must be no reserves in friendship: as much deliberation as you please before the league is struck, but no doubtings or jealousies after. He calls it a preposterous weakness to love a man before knowing him and then not care for him after. Once the resolution is taken, a friend is entitled to his very heart, and his thoughts are as safe in the friend's breast as his own.
Chapter 55
How does Seneca describe the delight of friendship, old and new?
Seneca compares enjoying an old friendship and acquiring a new one to the farmer's sowing and reaping: delight lies in the hope of labor and in its fruit. He says a friend is an eye, a heart, a tongue, a hand at all distances, and that letters give him his friend's company. He adds there is no relish in possessing anything without a partner, and he would refuse wisdom itself if it had to be kept to himself.
Chapter 55

Section 564 cards

According to Seneca, what makes a friendship of interest unable to last?
The author argues that a friendship founded on advantage lasts no longer than the advantage itself. He says such ties are a negotiation, not a friendship, and that men in prosperity are followed while the fallen are abandoned. He adds that only wise men can truly be friends; others are merely companions.
Chapter 56
How does Seneca distinguish love from friendship?
The author argues that love may sometimes do us harm, while friendship always does us good. A friend is hopeful for another in prosperity and affliction alike. Comfort from those we love arrives at a distance, light and faint, but presence and conversation touch us to the quick, especially when the loved one is as we wish.
Chapter 56
What does Seneca say about how we spend and lose time?
The author argues life is not short by nature but made short by us: much passes in evil doing, more in doing nothing, and the whole in doing things beside our business. He says the greatest loss is delay and expectation, since we let go the present, which is in our power, and chase the future, which depends on Fortune.
Chapter 56
What lesson does Seneca draw from Augustus lamenting Agrippa and Mecenas?
Seneca notes that princes commonly praise the dead to reproach the living, since the dead pose no danger. Augustus, after banishing his daughter Julia, often said Agrippa or Mecenas would have prevented it. Seneca questions where the fault lay, suggesting it may have been Augustus's own for complaining of lost friends rather than seeking others as good.
Chapter 56

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According to Seneca, what two parts divide the calamities of human nature?
Seneca divides human calamities into the fear of death and the miseries and errors of life. He says the great work of mankind is to master the first and rectify the second, living so that life is not irksome nor death terrible. He urges living well before old age and dying well when old, expecting one's end without sadness, since every hour reminds us of mortality.
Chapter 57
How does Seneca describe the three divisions of life and their certainty?
Seneca divides life into time present, past, and to come. What we do is short, what we shall do is doubtful, but what we have done is certain and beyond the power of fortune. He notes time's passage is wonderfully quick and must be viewed backward; the present slips by unperceived, so past ages alone can be surveyed at a glance.
Chapter 57
What folly does Seneca identify in how people value time versus money?
Seneca argues human folly is blind in caring more for fortunes, houses, and money than for life. Anyone may intrude on our time freely, yet we take up fire and sword if someone invades our property. People grant friends hours for business without counting time, the most valuable of all things, because they cannot see it. The dying would give the whole world for those wasted hours, but they cannot be recovered.
Chapter 57

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According to Seneca, what are the three ways our time is taken from us?
Seneca says our time is either forced away from us, stolen from us, or lost, and he calls the last the foulest miscarriage of the three. He compares time to a debt that gratitude itself can never repay, and notes that a man who takes away a day takes what he can never restore.
Chapter 58
Why does Seneca say a wicked man fears his own memory?
Seneca argues that the conscience of a good life gives a man secure and perpetual possession of undisturbed felicity, while the man who has led a wicked life is afraid of his own memory. Reviewing himself, he finds only appetite, avarice, or ambition instead of virtue. Seneca adds that the busy man has no leisure to look back, or finds it unpleasant.
Chapter 58
What does Seneca say Zeno and Chrysippus accomplished in their studies?
Seneca argues that Zeno and Chrysippus did greater things in their studies than if they had led armies, borne offices, or given laws, and that they did so not for one city but for all mankind. Their quiet contributed more to the common benefit than the sweat and labor of others, and their precepts oblige human nature in all succeeding generations.
Chapter 58
Why does Seneca say privacy has become necessary for a wise man?
Seneca argues that there is scarce any government that will either endure a wise man or that a wise man will endure, so privacy is made necessary because the only better thing is nowhere to be had. He cites Athens condemning Socrates and Aristotle fleeing, and Carthage's tyranny and ingratitude. He adds that a wise man's retreat must still be active in virtue.
Chapter 58

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According to Seneca, why is being perpetually employed in other people's business the worst misery?
The author argues it is the vilest of servitudes: you must sleep, eat, drink, walk, love and hate at their hour and pace. A busy life is always miserable, but doing other people's business is the greatest misery of all, since it makes you live by another's schedule rather than your own.
Chapter 59
How does Seneca say liberty is obtained, and what does he say about buying it?
Liberty is never bought or sold; a man must ask it of himself and give it to himself. He who has proven his virtue in public should also test it in private. Retreat should be without ostentation, for satisfaction and repose, not from hatred of mankind.
Chapter 59
What warning does Seneca give about retreats made from envy or discontent?
Such retreat is merely to the life of a mole: the person lives not to himself as a wise man does, but to his bed, belly and lusts. Ambition, luxury and pride follow them into recess, and some lie close not to live securely but to transgress more privately, their conscience keeping the porter.
Chapter 59

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According to the chapter, what single chain holds the whole world in bondage?
The chapter states there is but one chain that holds all the world in bondage: the love of life. Seneca argues this love of life, self-love, and the soul's long acquaintance with the body make death appear an evil even though it is itself no evil at all. The fear of death, he argues, is what makes us base and troubles and destroys the very life we wish to preserve.
Chapter 60
What does the chapter say about the pain of death compared to other suffering?
The author argues the pain of death is nothing compared to a fit of the stone: if it is tolerable it is not great, and if intolerable it cannot last long. He adds that nothing Nature made necessary is easier than death, since we take longer coming into the world than going out, and death is but a moment's work, the parting of soul and body.
Chapter 60
How does the chapter use Canius Julius to illustrate contempt of death?
The chapter recounts that Caligula told Canius Julius he had ordered his death, and Canius thanked the emperor, implying death was a mercy under his rule. Canius was at play when taken to execution and asked the centurion to witness that he had the better of the game. He told friends he was going to learn whether the soul is immortal and would report back if he discovered anything.
Chapter 60
What counsel does the Stoic friend give Marcellinus about death?
The Stoic friend tells Marcellinus not to treat dying as a mighty business: it is nothing to live, since all his servants and even beasts do it; but to die honestly and resolutely is the great point. He urges him to consider that nothing pleasant in life remains untasted and what is to come is the same over again, and many choose death over the nauseous tedium of repetition. Marcellinus then fasted himself to death.
Chapter 60

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According to Seneca, what is it about death that is actually dreadful?
Seneca argues it is not death itself that is dreadful but the fear of it that goes before it. When the mind is in consternation, no state of life can please us, because we do not so much endeavor to avoid mischiefs as to run away from them, and the greatest slaughter is upon a flying enemy. He adds that the way never to fear death is to think of it often.
Chapter 61
What examples does Seneca give of great men destroyed by those beneath them?
Seneca cites Pompey the Great, whose head was taken off by a boy and a eunuch (young Ptolemy and Photinus); Caligula, who commanded the tribune Dæcimus to kill Lepidus; and the tribune Chæreus, who did as much for Caligula. Seneca concludes that no man is so great that he is not as liable to suffer mischief as he is able to do it.
Chapter 61
How does Seneca describe dying daily and the relation of life to death?
Seneca argues we die daily: while we are growing, our life decreases, and every moment that passes takes away part of it. All that is past is lost, and we divide with death the very instant that we live. As the last sand in the glass does not measure the hour but finishes it, so the last moment we live does not make up death but concludes it.
Chapter 61
What does Seneca say about fearing thunder compared with other dangers?
Seneca notes some men particularly fear thunder yet are careless of other and greater dangers, as if that were all they had to fear — when a sword, a stone, or a fever will do the work as well. He argues it is braver to die with a stroke than with the bare apprehension of it, and vain to imagine heaven and earth are disordered only for one man's death.
Chapter 61

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According to Seneca, how is life to be measured?
Seneca argues life is measured by action, not by time: a man may die old at thirty and young at fourscore. The length of life is in the power of others, but how well one lives is in one's own power. He calls it a blessed thing to dispatch the business of life before dying, and says an honest death is no less a good than an honest life.
Chapter 62
What does Seneca say about the fear of death?
Seneca states that the fear of death is a continual slavery, as the contempt of it is certain liberty. He urges looking for death in all places and at all times, since it is uncertain when or where it comes. He also says it is childish to leave the world groaning and wailing as we entered it, and that death frees us from all the miseries of life.
Chapter 62
What two possibilities does Seneca give for what follows death?
Seneca says it would be rash to condemn what we do not understand, but he presumes either that we pass into a better life, living with tranquillity and splendor in diviner mansions, or else return to our first principles, free from the sense of any inconvenience. He adds that nothing is immortal and the world itself stands condemned to dissolution.
Chapter 62
Why does Seneca call it arrogance for man alone to expect to live forever?
Seneca argues that since the world itself stands condemned to a dissolution, and nothing is immortal or lasting, it is arrogant for man alone to expect to live forever. He says it is unjust not to allow the giver power over his own bounty, and folly to value only the present. Death is a debt, and life is a journey toward it.
Chapter 62

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According to Seneca, why should we not complain about the necessity of death?
Seneca argues that death is a necessity equal and invincible for all: no one has cause to complain of what every person must suffer. The decree is fixed and unavoidable, and those who will not follow willingly are drawn by force. He therefore urges cheerful compliance with what Providence has made necessary, since resisting it is futile.
Chapter 63
How does Seneca describe the uncertainty of life between cradle and grave?
Seneca says all between cradle and grave is uncertain, and death alone is certain. People die at the table, in sleep, by the sword, halter, potion, or disease—the end is the same. A child in swaddling clothes and a man of a hundred are both mortal alike. If we count troubles, a child's life is long; if sweetness, an old man's is short.
Chapter 63
What example of Senecio does Seneca use to illustrate sudden death?
Senecio rose from small beginnings to great wealth, skilled at both getting and keeping. He was careful of his patrimony and his body. After a morning visit to the author, he spent the day with a desperately sick friend, was merry at supper, and was seized by a quinsy that killed him within hours—cut off in the height of prosperity.
Chapter 63
How does Seneca define death, and what does he say about great minds and dissolution?
Seneca says what we call death is but a pause or suspension, and in truth a progress to life; our thoughts look downward on the body rather than forward to things to come. All things under the sun are mortal—cities and empires included—and a great mind submits to God and willingly suffers what the law of the universe would otherwise bring by necessity.
Chapter 63

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What limits does Seneca place on grieving a friend's death?
Seneca allows a sigh or a tear to a friend's memory as both natural and just, but forbids profuse or obstinate sorrow. He argues clamorous public lamentation shows vain-glory rather than grief, since such mourners are sadder in company than alone. Moderation and wisdom should end grief sooner than time does.
Chapter 64
How does Seneca distinguish natural from voluntary grief?
Seneca says sudden bad news or a final embrace can force weeping and trembling by natural necessity, and tears of memory may flow freely without dishonoring a wise man. But the lingering uneasiness at parting is more voluntary than natural, driven by custom rather than feeling, and people cry when watched.
Chapter 64
What does Seneca call excessive mourning, and what does it insult?
Seneca calls mourning without measure folly and not mourning at all insensibility, praising a middle course between piety and reason. Excessive grief for the dead, he argues, is an affront to the living, and inveterate grief is laughed at as either counterfeit or foolish.
Chapter 64
Why does Seneca say the loudest mourners cared least for the living?
Seneca observes that the most desperate mourners are often those who cared least for friends while alive, trying to redeem their credit by extravagant raving after death. He also notes that he who dies cheerfully dries up tears, while he who dies whiningly does not deserve them.
Chapter 64

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According to Seneca, why is it unjust to complain about a friend's death?
Seneca argues that since the same fate awaits everyone—the whole world is on the march toward the same point—it is unjust to complain when one man dies. He asks why we do not lament beforehand for ourselves who will follow, rather than only for the one who went first. Grieving does no good, so it is idle.
Chapter 65
How does Seneca reframe the dead friend as still a source of comfort?
Seneca says the comfort of having had a friend cannot be taken away, only the having of him. Remembrance mixes loss with the contemplation of the friend's virtues, as sharpness in fruit or bitterness in wine can please. He calls it an ill construction of Providence to reflect only on the friend being taken, ignoring the benefit of his having been given.
Chapter 65
What does Seneca say about the timing of consolation for fresh grief?
Seneca says consolation cannot be applied to fresh, bleeding sorrow—the discourse irritates and inflames grief, like an unseasonable medicine. Once the first violence is over, grief is more tractable. He also says those weakened by long felicity may groan and complain, but those who have led their days in misfortune are hardened by adversity, like a veteran versus a raw soldier.
Chapter 65
How does Seneca argue that banishment is not truly grievous?
Seneca argues many people live abroad by choice—for ambition, business, curiosity, study, or pleasure—and even barren islands have inhabitants. The mind, of divine origin, is restless and free; the body is merely its prison or clog. A poor cottage consecrated by an honest man is worth more than a magnificent temple, and the mind makes us rich in a desert. Necessities suffice; no kingdom satisfies superfluities.
Chapter 65

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According to Seneca, what three things are grievous in sickness?
Seneca identifies three grievances in sickness: the fear of death, bodily pain, and the interruption of pleasures. He argues the fear of death should be imputed to nature rather than disease, since we die because we live, not because we are sick. He even claims sickness itself has preserved many a man from dying.
Chapter 66
How does Seneca describe the duration and severity of pain in illness?
Seneca argues that if diseases are long they remit and give intervals of ease; if short and violent, they either dispatch us or consume themselves. Thus their respites make them tolerable, or their extremity makes them short. He adds that the sharpest pains affecting the nerves quickly make us stupid and insensible, showing God's mercy that torments cannot be both sharp and lasting.
Chapter 66
Why does Seneca claim no man is poor who has enough?
Seneca argues that nature requires only satisfaction of hunger and thirst, not luxury. He who has enough is at rest, while he who has much desires more and shows he lacks enough. Money never made anyone rich, since the more one has the more one covets. Alexander complained of wanting more worlds even after conquering all, proving that sufficiency for human nature was not enough for one man.
Chapter 66
What comfort does Seneca say exiles retain despite banishment?
Seneca argues that despite shifting habitations, exiles retain the same nature, the same Providence, and carry their virtues with them. Wherever they go, the heavens remain overhead and no farther than before. Nothing can be taken from them but what they can well spare; the most magnificent and valuable things continue with them, so long as they can contemplate the heavens.
Chapter 66

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According to Seneca, what makes a person truly rich?
Seneca argues that riches come not from increasing one's fortune but from reducing one's appetites. He says a person is poor not when he has little, but when he covets more, and that having what is necessary is a fair degree of plenty. Frugality, he claims, makes a poor man rich, while without it nothing is sufficient.
Chapter 67
Why does Seneca claim poverty is not truly a trouble?
Seneca argues that no man finds poverty troublesome except the one who thinks it so, and thinking it so makes it so. He notes the rich travel with less luggage and sometimes imitate plain living for pleasure, so fearing what one often desires is madness. The fault, he says, lies not in the thing but in the mind, which carries its disease from kennel to palace.
Chapter 67
What condition of fortune does Seneca consider most desirable?
Seneca desires property that burdens neither himself nor others, and calls best that state of fortune which is neither directly necessitous nor far from it. A mediocrity of fortune with gentleness of mind preserves one from fear and envy. He says the state lying between poverty and plenty is most commodious, and that he who has least to lose has least to fear.
Chapter 67
How do the Stoics define anger, and how does Seneca defend it?
The Stoics hold anger to be a desire of punishing another for some injury done. Seneca answers objections: we may be angry at those who never hurt us because they hurt us in conceit, and the purpose is injury in thought before act. He adds that anger is the desire, not the power, of revenge, since even the greatest man may lie at a low man's mercy.
Chapter 67

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According to Seneca, why are beasts not truly capable of anger?
Seneca argues beasts show rage and fierceness but lack the reflection and judgment that make anger a passion of reasonable creatures. They are moved to fury and quieted again once the occasion passes, without deliberating or seeking another's punishment. He holds wisdom and thought are goods of the mind brutes wholly lack, so their impulses resemble but are not human affections or vices.
Chapter 68
How does Seneca argue that anger is against nature?
The author argues anger is a vice point-blank against nature because it divides instead of joining and frustrates Providence's end in human society. One man was born to help another, but anger makes us destroy one another; it separates, is mischievous, destroys intimate friends, and ruins a man to undo another. Nature is bountiful, but anger is pernicious, for mutual love, not fear, binds mankind.
Chapter 68
What are Seneca's three motions of anger, and which can reason overcome?
The first motion is involuntary, a menacing preparation; the second deliberates that an injury should not pass without revenge; the third resolves upon vengeance right or wrong. Seneca says the first and second cannot be avoided, like yawning for company, though custom lessens them. The third, rising on consideration, can be removed by judgment, since it proceeds with the mind's assent.
Chapter 68
Why does Seneca conclude anger is voluntary rather than bred in us?
Seneca reasons that anger involves taking offence, meditating revenge, and judging the injury ought not to have been done, which cannot proceed without the will's concurrence. Involuntary motions like shuddering at cold water or blushing at lewd talk cannot be overcome by reason, but anger can be overcome by caution and good counsel. Therefore he calls anger a voluntary vice, not a frailty of humanity.
Chapter 68

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According to Seneca, how does anger differ from bodily motions like trembling in battle?
Seneca distinguishes mere bodily motions—such as a brave man turning pale, his knees knocking, or his heart racing before battle—from anger. These motions happen to the body and the mind suffers rather than acts. Anger, by contrast, is an "excursion" that proposes revenge or punishment, which cannot occur without the mind's concurrence and the will's consent.
Chapter 69
How did Augustus respond to the historian Timagenus's insults and to Pollio sheltering him?
Augustus repeatedly advised Timagenus to stop, then barred him from his house. When Asinius Pollio took him in, Augustus never quarreled with anyone who received him. He told Pollio he had taken a snake into his bosom, and when Pollio offered to cast Timagenus off, Augustus refused, saying he would not part those he had made friends.
Chapter 69
What did Antigonus do when he overheard soldiers cursing him at night?
Hearing soldiers rail at him through a hanging, Antigonus gently moved it aside and told them to stand farther off so the king would not hear. The same night, hearing soldiers curse him for leading them into foul ground, he went to them unidentified and helped them out, saying they might curse whoever brought them into the mire provided they bless whoever took them out.
Chapter 69
What examples does Seneca give to prove anger can be suppressed?
Seneca cites Thrasippus, whom Pisistratus refused to punish, saying he would not be angry with a man who stumbled on him blindfold; Augustus's restraint toward Timagenus; Antigonus helping cursing soldiers; and Harpagus, who, served his own son's flesh by Astyages, replied only that whatever pleased the king pleased him. Seneca argues these show the mind can master anger.
Chapter 69

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What did Philip of Macedon tell the Athenians after Democharas insulted him?
Philip told the other ambassadors to report to the Athenians that it is worse to speak such things than to hear and forgive them. He refused to let bystanders interfere with the foul-mouthed Democharas and let him go as he came. Seneca calls this patience under contumelies a great means of Philip's security.
Chapter 70
How does Seneca describe anger's resemblance to madness?
Seneca endorses calling anger a short madness, since choler and frenzy share symptoms: pale then blood-red face, glaring eyes, wrinkled brow, restless hands, stamping feet, trembling lips, broken speech, and swelling veins. He adds that anger is not merely a resemblance but often an irrevocable transition into madness itself, so it should be avoided for health as well as moderation.
Chapter 70
Why does Seneca call anger unwarrantable and unjust?
Seneca argues anger falls on the wrong person, discharging itself on the innocent instead of the guilty. It makes trivial offenses capital, punishing an inconsiderate word with torments, fetters, infamy, or death. It allows neither time nor means for defense, judges without hearing, admits no mediation, flies in the face of truth, and turns obstinacy in error into an argument of justice.
Chapter 70
What does Seneca say about anger being useful for keeping people in awe?
Seneca rejects the claim that anger does good by keeping people in awe and securing a man from contempt. He says it is more dangerous to be feared than despised. If an angry man has power he is the more odious; if he lacks power he is the more despicable, since nothing is more wretched than a choleric huff that makes noise and nobody cares.
Chapter 70

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Why does Seneca reject anger as useful for heroic action, against Aristotle?
Seneca argues anger is never profitable: if stronger than reason, it cannot be controlled; if weaker, reason suffices without it. He counters Aristotle's claim that anger aids heroic deeds by noting that reason, not passion, should drive worthy action, and that anger, once hardened into hatred, becomes incurable.
Chapter 71
How does Seneca say a good man should respond to injury to his family?
He should defend and rescue his parents and repay injuries done to them, but out of piety, duty, and conscience rather than anger. Seneca insists one should act without rage or weeping, discharging the office of a good man while keeping human dignity, since reason accomplishes the same thing without passion.
Chapter 71
What does Seneca compare a tainted mind to, and what does he say about self-command?
He compares a tainted mind to an ulcer: even the approach of a touch makes it shrink and complain. Once carried off balance, we are lost. He argues we should command our mind as we do our bodies, choosing a sword that is wieldy and a horse that can stop and turn, not merely run fast.
Chapter 71
What does Seneca say about counterfeiting anger, and where is it acceptable?
Seneca says it is not amiss sometimes to counterfeit anger, as on the stage, on the bench, and in the pulpit, where the imitation of anger is more effectual than the thing itself. He holds that man should follow God as example, who is never angry, rather than the creatures.
Chapter 71

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Why does Seneca reject anger as a spur to soldierly courage?
The author argues virtue needs no help from vice, and that necessary mental ardor can be roused without anger. If anger obeys reason it is not really anger; if it disobeys, it is mutinous. He adds that war demands order and caution, not precipitation, and that angry, undisciplined nations like the Germans were broken by Roman moderation and discipline.
Chapter 72
How does Seneca answer the objection that outrageous wickedness should anger a good man?
He denies it: virtue never corrects one vice by another, nor lets the greater crime, anger, punish the lesser. Since wickedness is everywhere, an angry man would never be pleased, making his peace depend on others' conduct. He adds that punishment is a matter of caution, not anger, and the law is without passion.
Chapter 72
How does Seneca say a judge should impose punishment, even capital punishment?
Punishment is a matter of caution, not anger; the law is without passion and strikes malefactors as we kill venomous creatures, to prevent greater harm. A judge condemns the vice, not the man, and should show no anger in looks, words, or gestures, though he may feel humane emotion. Removing an incurable offender must also be done without anger.
Chapter 72

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According to Seneca, what is the ultimate end of all correction or punishment?
The author argues that all correction aims either at amending wicked men or at preventing the influence of ill example. Men are punished with respect to the future, not to expiate offenses already committed, but for fear of worse to come. Public offenders must serve as a terror to others, yet the power of life and death must never be managed with passion.
Chapter 73
How does Seneca compare the magistrate's correction to a physician's treatment?
Seneca says ill dispositions of mind are handled like bodily ones: the physician first tries purging and abstinence, then bleeding, then dismembering rather than fail, since no operation is too severe that ends in health. Likewise the magistrate begins with persuasion, advances to admonition and reproach, then to moderate, revocable punishments—harsher only if the wickedness is incurable.
Chapter 73
What does Seneca claim is the surest argument of a great mind regarding anger?
The author argues there is no surer argument of a great mind than not being transported to anger by any accident. He compares the brave man to the sky above the clouds and tempests: calm and serene while storms form below. Such a man suppresses all provocations and lives modest, venerable, and composed, whereas anger casts off all shame and order.
Chapter 73
How does Seneca describe anger's power compared with other vices and passions?
Seneca says anger is the most powerful of passions: it makes a lover kill his mistress, the ambitious trample his honors, the covetous throw away his fortune. Other vices take us one by one, but anger sweeps all like an epidemic contagion—men, women, children, princes, beggars. It rises not by degrees but flashes like gunpowder, and is more hurtful than the injury provoking it.
Chapter 73

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According to Seneca, what happens to reason once anger is admitted into the mind?
Seneca argues that anger is far easier to keep out than to govern once admitted. The stronger element gives laws to the weaker, making reason a slave to appetite. Anger carries the mind headlong like a body down a precipice: once in motion, there is no stopping until it reaches the bottom. He adds that virtue and vice cannot agree in the same subject, so one cannot be good and angry at once.
Chapter 74
What does Seneca say about extending anger to an enemy's children and relations?
Seneca says that if we do transgress, our anger should not descend to the children, friends, or relations even of our bitterest enemies. He cites Sylla's cruelty as heightened by incapacitating the issue of the proscribed, calling it inhuman to entail hatred of the father upon his posterity. He also notes that paying anger with benefits ends the contest, since the dispute ends when one side deserts it.
Chapter 74
How does Seneca describe the wise man's proper attitude toward wicked men?
Seneca argues a good and wise man should not be an enemy of wicked men but a reprover of them, viewing drunkards, the lustful, the thankless, covetous, and ambitious as a physician views his patients. He says whoever is angry with any man must be displeased with all, which is as ridiculous as quarreling with a body for stumbling in the dark. Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept at the world's folly, but no angry philosopher is recorded.
Chapter 74

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What does Seneca say anger does to the angry person himself?
Seneca argues that anger engages people in treacheries, perpetual troubles and contentions, alters the very nature of a man, and punishes itself in the persecution of others. He contrasts it with humanity, which excites us to love and to benefit others, while anger excites to hatred and to hurt them.
Chapter 75
What happened to the soldier condemned by Piso, and why?
A soldier returned to camp on time without his comrade, and Piso condemned him to die as if he had killed him, appointing a centurion to see it done. When the missing soldier appeared, the centurion ordered the executioner to hold. Piso then sentenced all three to death: the condemned man because he was condemned, the other for his sake, and the centurion for disobeying orders.
Chapter 75

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According to Seneca, what is the general cause of anger?
Seneca states that the general cause of anger is the sense or opinion of an injury—either the opinion that an injury has simply been done, or that an injury has been done which we did not deserve. He distinguishes those naturally prone to anger from those provoked by circumstance, noting women and children are sharp but not lasting, while old men are querulous and peevish.
Chapter 76
What does Seneca identify as the greatest source of quarrels and noise?
Seneca argues that money is the greatest source of noise in human quarrels. It sets fathers against children and husbands against wives, makes way for sword and poison, tires out courts, enrages princes, and lays cities in the dust. Yet he calls these things baubles that make us cry when we should laugh, and says we set too great a value on trifles.
Chapter 76
How does Seneca distinguish opposing a man's satisfaction from injuring him?
Seneca says there is a large difference between opposing a man's satisfaction and not assisting it, and between taking away and not giving. But we treat denying and deferring as the same thing, and interpret another's being for himself as if he were against us. He adds that we often hate a man for doing what we should hate him for not doing.
Chapter 76
What does Seneca say about being offended at animals or weather?
Seneca calls it brutal folly to be offended at a mute animal, since no injury can be done without the concurrence of reason; a beast may hurt us only as a sword or stone does. He also notes some complain of foul weather, raging seas, or biting winter as if directed at them, charging Providence—whose operations are beneficial, not injurious.
Chapter 76

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According to Seneca, what two sorts of provocation to anger exist, and which is heavier?
Seneca distinguishes injury from contumely. Injury is heavier in its own nature; contumely is slight in itself and troublesome only to a wounded imagination. Yet some people will bear blows and even death rather than contumelious words. A contumely is an indignity below the consideration of law, unworthy of revenge or even complaint, and merely the vexation of a weak mind.
Chapter 77
How does Seneca say a wise man should regard contumelies, slanders, and ill words?
The author argues a wise man should treat contumelies, slanders, and ill words like the clamor of enemies or arrows shot at a distance: they clatter on his armor but do no execution. He adds that things are only ill that are ill taken, and that a man of worth should not think himself better or worse for others' opinions.
Chapter 77
What examples does Seneca give of Caius Caesar's and Cyrus's extravagant anger?
Seneca calls Caius Caesar's challenge to Jupiter blasphemous and sottish: he resented thunder drowning out his mimics and built a machine imitating thunder to oppose thunder to thunder. Cyrus, blocked by a river during his design on Babylon, swore it should never hinder anyone else, and set his army to divert it into a hundred and fourscore channels, losing time and courage while his enemies prepared.
Chapter 77
How does Seneca illustrate that contumely should not anger us, using children and buffoons?
Seneca compares contumelies to a child striking its mother, tearing her hair, and calling her names, which counts for nothing because the child knows not what it does. Likewise we are not moved by a buffoon's impudence, even against his own master, but encourage his freedom. The author argues we should treat all men as children, since their errors have grown up with them.
Chapter 77

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How does Seneca say a wise man should regard the words and actions of others?
The author argues a wise man should treat all mankind as a physician treats a sick patient: since people are sick and extravagant, their words and actions, good or bad, should count equally for nothing. He attends to his duty even in the coarsest offices toward their recovery, valuing the scorn of the proud no more than their rank.
Chapter 78
What rule does Seneca give for pardoning offenses, and how do injuries differ from benefits?
The rule is to pardon all offenses where there is any sign of repentance or hope of amendment. It does not hold in injuries as in benefits: requiting one with the other is a shame to overcome in benefits and to be overcome in injuries. The author argues a great mind despises injuries, and neglecting a man as not worth it is itself a kind of revenge.
Chapter 78
According to Seneca, how should one respond to an injury from a superior?
It is not enough to bear an injury from a superior patiently and without thoughts of revenge; one must receive it with a cheerful countenance and look as if he did not understand it. If he appears too sensible, he will be sure to have more of it. The author quotes the saying that it is a damned humor in great men that whom they wrong they will hate.
Chapter 78
What examples does Seneca give of men who deflected mockery by laughing at themselves?
Seneca cites Vatinius, diseased and deformed to extremity but abusively witty, whose way was always to make sport with himself and so prevent the mockeries of others. He also notes Fidus Cornelius, who wept in the senate at Corbulo's ostrich comparison, and Caligula, forward to break jests but unwilling to bear them.
Chapter 78

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According to Seneca, what is the danger of a soft and effeminate education?
The author argues that nothing breeds anger more than a soft and effeminate education, and it is seldom seen that either the mother's or the schoolmaster's darling comes to good. Flattery and great fortune nourish touchiness, so a child raised this way becomes choleric. Yet he warns that checking anger's seeds must not quench the child's spirits, so a balance between license and severity is the main difficulty.
Chapter 79
What practical measures does Seneca recommend for a person naturally addicted to anger?
Seneca advises a moderate diet and abstinence from wine, since wine adds fire to fire. Gentle exercises, recreations, and sports temper the mind. He warns against long, obstinate disputes, which are easier not to begin than to end, and against severe studies like law and mathematics, recommending poetry and history instead. One should also avoid undertakings beyond one's strength, since failing to finish vexes a man.
Chapter 79
How does Seneca use Plato's treatment of his servants to illustrate controlling anger?
Seneca recounts that Plato, about to strike his servant, checked himself while his hand was still raised, saying he was punishing an angry man. On another occasion, when a servant committed a great fault, Plato told Speusippus to beat him instead, saying 'I am angry,' and thus forbore for the very reason that would have moved another man to strike. Seneca argues one should not trust an angry man with revenge when Plato dared not trust himself.
Chapter 79
What remedy against anger does Seneca find in patience and delay?
Seneca says there is hardly a more effectual remedy against anger than patience and consideration. If the first fervor abates, the mist darkening the mind is lessened or dispelled; a day, even an hour, does much, and time turns anger into judgment. He also advises putting on contrary dispositions—calm looks, soft and slow speech, a deliberate march—and notes that Socrates, when angry, would speak low.
Chapter 79

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According to Seneca, how should one handle the first heat of anger?
Seneca advises that anger, unlike other passions, begins and completes itself in the same moment and runs away with us by force, so there is no encountering its first heat. The best way is to give it time and rest at the beginning and let it spend itself, while putting all instruments of revenge out of the way.
Chapter 80
How does Seneca say we should treat reported injuries versus what we witness?
Seneca cautions against credulity: many probable things prove false, and people are prone to believe what they wish to hear. For small matters he would have witnesses; for greater ones, testimony upon oath, time for the accused, counsel, and repeated hearings. Where we witness ourselves, we should weigh circumstances such as ignorance, mistake, necessity, or command.
Chapter 80
What does Seneca say about being over-curious and listening to tale-bearers?
Seneca argues that a man who is over-curious to hear and see everything multiplies troubles to himself, since one does not feel what one does not know. He who listens after private discourse and what people say of him shall never be at peace, and many innocent things are made injuries by misconstruction.
Chapter 80
What circumstances does Seneca list to excuse or explain injuries we witness?
Seneca lists: if a child, it was ignorance; if a woman, a mistake; if by command, a necessity; if a man be injured, it is quid pro quo; if a judge, he knows what he does; if a prince, submit; if a brute, we imitate it by anger; if calamity or disease, patience; if providence, anger is impious and vain; if a good man, make the best of it; if a bad man, do not wonder.
Chapter 80

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According to Seneca, what should we consider before reacting to an injury?
Seneca urges weighing the doer, not just the deed: the offender may have acted unwillingly, by chance, under pressure, or for reward rather than hatred. We should consider age and fortune, and apply humanity and candor. He distinguishes a great mischief done unwittingly from a small one done by design, and says he will be angry with neither.
Chapter 81
What rule does Seneca give about granting pardon?
Seneca sets the rule never to deny a pardon that harms neither giver nor receiver. He notes something may be acceptable in one person and wrong in another, so we should not condemn what is common to a nation, since custom defends it—and things common to all mankind are even more pardonable.
Chapter 81
Why does Seneca say we should bear with others' faults?
Seneca argues all of us are wicked and share the same faults, so it is unreasonable to charge public vices to particular persons. We carry our neighbors' crimes in sight and throw our own over our shoulders. Since no one is without error, humanity obliges us to bear with one another, and the way to be quiet is mutual tolerance.
Chapter 81
What does Seneca say about the rule of human duty versus law?
Seneca argues the rule of human duty is broader than the statute-books: piety, humanity, liberality, justice, and faith are obligations not found in law. He says we fall short even of legal innocence, since we intended one thing and did another, and only lack of success kept us from being criminals—which should make us more forgiving of delinquents.
Chapter 81

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How does Seneca distinguish cruelty from anger?
Seneca argues anger presupposes an injury done, conceived, or feared, while cruelty takes pleasure in tormenting and kills merely for killing's sake, without even pretending provocation. Cruelty may originate in anger but, through frequent exercise and custom, loses all sense of humanity and mercy, becoming bestial madness rather than a response to wrong.
Chapter 82
What does Seneca report about the meridian spectacles?
Seneca says he attended the meridian spectacles hoping for diversion after the morning's bloodshed, but found them worse: the combatants fought naked, every blow a wound, contending not for victory but for death, and the crowd mocked any man who shrank from his flesh. He warns spectators that the same fate may come to them.
Chapter 82
Why does Seneca reject the maxim 'Let them hate me, so they fear me'?
Seneca argues those kept obedient by fear are malicious and mercenary, waiting only for a chance to change masters, and whoever is terrible to others is also afraid of himself. Tyrants are often destroyed by their own guards, practicing the crimes they learned from their masters, and popular tyranny makes whole nations conspire against it.
Chapter 82
What does Seneca say about the consequences of a prince's cruelty?
Seneca argues cruelty increases a prince's enemies by destroying some, entailing hereditary hatred on friends and relations of the slain. The cruel man must be wicked by necessity, cannot go back, trusts neither friends' faith nor children's piety, dreads death and wishes it, and becomes a greater terror to himself than to his people.
Chapter 82

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How does Seneca distinguish clemency from pity?
Seneca defines clemency as a favorable disposition of mind in inflicting punishment, or a moderation that remits some of the penalty incurred, while pardon is total remission of a deserved punishment. He argues pity is a weakness, a moral sickness contracted from others' misfortune, arising from narrowness of mind that respects fortune rather than cause. One should practice clemency but avoid pity.
Chapter 83
What objection to clemency does Seneca answer, and how?
Some object that clemency is insignificant since only the bad benefit and the good have no need of it. Seneca replies that as medicine is used only among the sick yet honored by the sound, the innocent revere clemency though criminals are its proper objects. He adds that even the innocent may need it through fortune or the times, and that all are sinners to some degree.
Chapter 83
Why does Seneca say clemency must not pardon all?
Seneca insists clemency must respect the quality of the offender and separate the curable from the desperate, since it is equal cruelty to pardon all and to pardon none. A general indiscriminate pardon would introduce confusion and encourage wickedness. Where the matter is in balance, mercy should turn the scale; but if all wicked men were punished, who would escape?
Chapter 83
How does Seneca compare a prince's clemency to a father's or master's?
Seneca compares rule over people, children, scholars, and soldiers, arguing an unnatural father beats his children for trifles, and the better master instructs by admonition and fair words rather than raging over a missed word. An outrageous officer makes men flee their colors, and a skilled rider mixes fair means with foul rather than constantly switching and spurring, which makes a horse vicious.
Chapter 83

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According to Seneca, what distinguishes a prince from any ordinary man regarding killing?
Seneca states that any man may kill another against the law, but only a prince can save him so. He argues a prince who has great power to do mischief yet applies it to the common utility and comfort of his people is the greatest blessing to mankind, diffusing clemency and goodness into their hearts.
Chapter 84
Why does Seneca say it is in the people's own interest to protect their prince?
Seneca argues the people's loyalty serves their own security. In the breath of a prince there is life and death, and his sentence stands good, right or wrong. If he is angry no one dares advise him, and if he does amiss no one calls him to account. So a clement prince is a blessing, and the people guard him as the bond that ties the republic together.
Chapter 84
What comparison does Seneca draw between a moderate government and a turbulent one?
Seneca compares them to weather: a calm, temperate, clear day versus lightning, thunder, and tempests. He says it is for low and vulgar spirits to brawl, storm, and transport themselves, but it is not for the majesty of a prince to lash out into intemperance of words. He adds that government itself is but a more illustrious servitude.
Chapter 84
How does Seneca describe a good prince's approach to punishing his subjects?
Seneca likens the prince to a good father who gently reproves, threatens, and perhaps corrects a son, but will not disinherit him for a first fault. Many great offences and desperate consequences must come before that decretory resolution. The prince should try many experiments to reclaim him first, and grieve when amputation is necessary, since a hasty sentence looks willing.
Chapter 84

Section 854 cards

What analogy does Seneca use for the natural intent of monarchy?
Seneca compares monarchy to the discipline of bees: the bees give their king the fairest and safest lodgings, and his only office is to see that the rest perform their duties. When the king is lost the whole swarm dissolves, and they admit only one. He notes the king bee alone has no sting, intimating that kings should be neither vindictive nor cruel.
Chapter 85
According to Seneca, what is the end or purpose of punishment?
Seneca says the end of punishment is either to comfort the party injured or to secure him for the future. A prince's fortune is above needing such comfort, and his power too eminent to gain reputation by harming a private man. Punishment may also aim at the offender's amendment, at deterring others, or at removing the offender for public security.
Chapter 85
What does Seneca argue about clemency as protection for a prince?
The author argues that clemency protects a prince without a guard: no troops, castles, or fortifications are needed, since security on one side is the condition of security on the other, and the affections of subjects are the most invincible fortress. A tyrant, by contrast, stands in fear even of his own guards, and no prince is safe of whom all others are afraid.
Chapter 85
What examples does Seneca give of laws and punishments increasing crime?
Seneca says sins are often committed that are often punished. Caligula in five years condemned more people to the sack than ever before him, and there were fewer parricides before the law against them than after. He argues parricides began with the law against them, and the punishment instructed men in the crime, since showing a city its strength in delinquents is dangerous.
Chapter 85

Section 864 cards

According to Seneca, what distinguishes a king from a tyrant?
Seneca argues that a king and a tyrant share the same power; the difference lies in their will. The tyrant destroys for his pleasure, while the king acts only from necessity. Seneca calls this a distinction in fact rather than in name, and adds that a good prince bears arms to defend his people, not to ruin them.
Chapter 86
Why does Seneca say harsh rulers cannot keep faithful servants?
Seneca argues that a prince who accustoms his servants to tortures and executions can never have faithful ones. The guilty themselves live no more anxiously than their persecutors, who fear both divine and human justice and find it dangerous to reform. Once started, Seneca says, they must continue wicked out of necessity, and universal hatred unites in popular rage.
Chapter 86
What advice does Livia give Augustus about punishing Cinna?
Livia urges Augustus to try the opposite of severity, as a physician tries contrary remedies when common ones fail. She notes that severity has gained nothing: after Salvidianus came Lepidus, then Muræna, Cæpio, and Egnatius. She advises him to forgive Cinna, who is already discovered and cannot harm him, and says mercy will improve his reputation. Augustus welcomes the advice.
Chapter 86
How does Augustus finally treat Cinna, and with what result?
After a long private speech, Augustus says he gives life again to a traitor and parricide, and that from then on they will compete only in friendship. He makes Cinna consul, an honor Cinna admitted he dared not desire. Cinna remained loyal, made Caesar his sole heir, and this was the last conspiracy ever formed against Augustus.
Chapter 86

Section 874 cards

How did Augustus treat Lepidus after defeating him?
Seneca says Augustus punished Lepidus only with banishment and let him keep the insignia of his dignity, refusing to take the pontificate for himself while Lepidus lived. Augustus would not possess it as a spoil but as an honor. Seneca presents this clemency as what secured Augustus in his greatness and made his name famous to posterity.
Chapter 87
How did Augustus handle the trial of Titus Arius's son?
Augustus sat in Arius's house as only one member of the council, had each man write his verdict without declaring his own, and swore he would not be Arius's heir. The son was not given the usual parricide punishments but was banished from Rome to a place his father named, with Augustus urging an easy penalty.
Chapter 87
What does Seneca say makes a cruel ruler miserable?
Seneca argues the ruler who uses power for rapines and cruelty is more unhappy in himself, fearing domestics and strangers, the faith of friends and the piety of children, and resorting to violence to escape violence he fears. Reviewing what he has done, must do, and is about to do, he often fears death, more often wishes for it, and lives more odious to himself than to his subjects.
Chapter 87
What does Seneca conclude about clemency and power?
Seneca concludes that clemency becomes whatever authority one holds, and the greater the power, the greater its glory. He quotes that it is a truly royal virtue for a prince to deliver his people from other men's anger and not oppress them with his own. Earlier he states it is generous to be merciful when one has power to take revenge.
Chapter 87

Source and licence

Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #56075 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.

Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-11-01. Cards reviewed 2026-11-01.

These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.

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All questions and answers

Why does L'Estrange choose an abstract rather than a full translation of Seneca?

What political events does L'Estrange cite as evidence of hypocrisy's damage?

What does L'Estrange say about libels and libellers, and what does he find wonderful?

What three professed enemies does the preface say Seneca had among the ancients?

How does Fabius qualify his criticism of Seneca, according to the chapter?

Which lost works of Seneca does the chapter mention, and on what sources?

What does Lactantius praise in Seneca's statements about God and conscience?

According to Seneca, what does God actually delight in, rather than temples or bloody sacrifices?

How does Seneca describe the images of the gods in his book against Superstitions?

What does Seneca say about worshipping the rabble of deities gathered by superstition?

What was Seneca's family background and early education?

Why was Seneca banished to Corsica in the first year of Claudius?

What did Seneca tell his friends when denied a will before dying?

How did Paulina respond to Seneca's death sentence?

How did Seneca's simple diet relate to Nero's poisoning attempt?

How does Seneca define a benefit?

What three sorts of benefits does Seneca identify?

Which benefits does Seneca call the greatest, and why?

How does Seneca distinguish absolute from vulgar benefits?

According to Seneca, why may a son's benefit to his father exceed what he owes for being begotten?

How does Seneca distinguish benefits, duties, and ministerial offices between master and servant?

What examples does Seneca give of sons who greatly benefited their fathers?

What is Seneca's stated purpose in arguing that sons may oblige fathers and servants masters?

According to Seneca, what makes a benefit truly a benefit?

How does Seneca use the dog example to prove intention matters?

Why does Seneca say the benefit is immortal while the gift is perishable?

What conditions does Seneca set for good-will to count as a benefit?

According to Seneca, what does perfecting a benefit depend upon?

Why does Seneca say a misplacing of a benefit is worse than not receiving one?

What does Seneca say about giving to those who can never repay?

How does Seneca answer the objection that we cannot know who will be grateful?

What qualities make a present acceptable, according to Seneca?

Why does Seneca object to giving a gift that reproaches the receiver's faults?

How does Seneca describe the manner in which benefits should be conferred?

What does Seneca say about the Megara ambassadors' gift to Alexander?

According to Seneca, what matters most in conferring a benefit?

When should favors be conferred publicly versus privately?

How does Seneca say the value of a benefit is rated?

What does Seneca say about paying physicians and tutors?

When does a later injury cancel an earlier benefit, according to Seneca?

Why does Seneca say a benefit done from unchangeable good-will is a greater obligation?

How does Plato handle the ferryman's free passage?

How does Seneca distinguish a common obligation from a particular one?

Why does Seneca say a poor man who only wishes to repay a benefit is not overcome?

What two errors does Seneca identify in the saying that it is shameful to be outdone in courtesy?

Why does Seneca suggest Socrates declined Archelaus's invitation?

According to Seneca, what can a poor man give a wealthy benefactor in return?

Why does Seneca deny that a man can give or owe a benefit to himself?

According to Seneca, does saving a man's son obligate the father?

What test does Seneca use to limit how far a benefit to one person binds others?

How does Seneca characterize the debate over self-benefits at the chapter's end?

According to the chapter, when is a person obligated by a kindness done to them?

Why may an unworthy person be honored, according to the chapter?

What does the chapter say about Providence and the descendants of honorable families?

Why does the author insist a benefactor must give without by-ends?

What does Epicurus claim about God's relation to the world?

How does Seneca use the names Bacchus, Hercules, and Mercury?

Why does Seneca insist benefits must be gratuitous?

How does Seneca answer the objection about choosing the recipient?

How does Seneca argue gratitude should be valued, against Epicurus's objection?

What kinds of ingratitude does Seneca distinguish, and how should each be treated?

How does Seneca recommend reminding someone of a benefit, and what is the goal?

What contrast does Seneca draw between Caesar's and Tiberius's responses to reminders?

According to Seneca, which form of ingratitude is the worst?

Why does Seneca condemn benefactors who publicly boast of their good deeds?

How does Seneca describe the proscribed man's response to his savior's reminders?

When does Seneca say it is acceptable to remind someone of a benefit?

According to Seneca, when is a promise to do a good office for a wicked man still binding?

Why does Seneca say Philip of Macedon should not have kept his promise to the soldier?

What does Seneca say about requiting a benefactor who later betrays his country?

How does Seneca distinguish a benefit from a debt when dealing with an unworthy person?

What distinction does Seneca draw between choosing a man and not excluding him?

According to Cleanthes, when is a person guilty of ingratitude even without receiving a benefit?

According to Seneca, whose fault is it if a benefit is not given, and whose if it is received ungratefully?

What does Seneca say about upbraiding or delaying a benefit?

How does Seneca describe the proper conduct of the receiver toward the giver?

Why does Seneca compare benefits to grain and to a house rebuilt on ashes?

According to Seneca, why is receiving a benefit harder than giving one?

What question does Seneca raise about Brutus receiving life from Caesar?