Monday

April 19

"They are mad, who make no account of riches, health, freedom from pain, and integrity of the body, nor take any care to attain them."

Seneca's Epistles, cxxiii, sec. 3.

"The wise man will not love wealth, but yet he will prefer to have it. He will receive it into his house, though not into his heart, not rejecting it, but controlling it, and willing to have larger opportunities for virtue."

Pliny's Epistles, vi, book i, sec. 2.

"In poverty there can be no virtues but perseverance and self-respect, but wealth gives a free field for temperance, generosity, economy, industry, and magnanimity."

Chrysippus, quoted in Plutarch's Morals, Goodwin's Ed., vol. iv, p. 437.

1 comment:

  1. Lately there has been an online debate on indifferent and the Stoic meaning of indifference. This is such an appropriate quote... Indifferents are preferred but not necessary to live a virtuous life, which is the goal of a Stoic. I think our practice of using the term "morally neutral" instead of indifferent allows us to be more precise about what Stoic indifferents really are. It is not the lack of consideration or care about what is happening around us but those things in our life which are morally neutral such as wealth, health, etc.

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