The Wisdom of Seneca — A Collection of Short Reflections
On the Shortness of Life
We turn to the philosopher Seneca (4 BCE— 65 CE) for wisdom in this reflection. The poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?” Around two thousand years before Oliver, Seneca wrote in his treatise On the Shortness of Life similar questions on living a meaningful life.
Seneca put it this way,
It’s not that we have a short time to live, but we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it’s been given to us in generous measure for accomplishing the greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when life is squandered through soft and careless living, and when it’s spent on no worthwhile pursuit, death finally presses and we realize that the life of which we didn’t notice passing has passed away.
Similarly, the poet Carl Sandburg stated, “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
In a recent conversation, I had on In Search of Wisdom, Oliver Burkeman, the author of Four Thousand Weeks, made this point,
We tend to speak about our having a limited amount of time. But it might make more sense, from Heidegger’s strange perspective, to say that we are a limited amount of time. That’s how completely our limited time defines us.
Our limited time isn’t just one among various things we have to cope with; instead, it’s the thing that defines us. Burkeman explained we are already thrown into time before asking a single question about what we should do with our time.
For this reason, learning how to live takes an entire lifetime, and more surprisingly, it takes a whole lifetime to learn how to die. Yet, according to Seneca, the most significant waste of life rests in postponement: it robs us of each day in turn and takes away the present with promises of the future.
The greatest impediment to living is expectancy, which relies on tomorrow and wastes today. You map out what’s in fortune’s hand but let slip what’s in your own hand. What are you aiming at? What’s your goal? All that’s to come lies in uncertainty: live right now.
We must have a clear idea of the life we want to lead. Then, as we navigate the paths of life, we can ask whether or not it leads us closer or further from that life. “If one does not know which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable,” wrote Seneca.
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On Anger (and Forgiveness)
We turn to the philosopher Seneca (4 BCE — 65 CE) for wisdom in this reflection. Seneca’s writings serve as one of the most important bodies of work for Stoic philosophy. In his essay On Anger, Seneca stressed that anger is the most destructive of the passions.
According to Seneca,
Anger is not only a vice, but a vice point-blank against nature, for it divides instead of joining; and in some measure, frustrates the end of Providence in human society. One man was born to help another; anger makes us destroy one another; the one unites, the other separates; the one is beneficial to us, the other mischievous; the one succors even strangers, the other destroys even the most intimate friends; the one ventures all to save another, the other ruins himself to undo another. Nature is bountiful, but anger is pernicious: for it is not fear, but mutual love that binds up mankind.
Similarly, Marcus Aurelius put it this way, “When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you’ll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case, they’re misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?”
The philosopher Simon Critchley (a previous guest on In Search of Wisdom) explains in Bald: 35 Philosophical Shortcuts, revenge is the desire to repay an injury or a wrong by inflicting harm, often the violent sort. If you hit me, I will hit you back. Furthermore, by the logic of revenge, I am right to hit you back. The initial wrong justifies and starts the cycle of revenge. But does that wrong make it right for me to hit back? Once we act out of revenge, don’t we become mired in a cycle of violence and counterviolence with no apparent end?
To quote the Chinese proverb attributed to Confucius,
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
It is much better to heal than to seek revenge from injury, according to Seneca. Vengeance wastes precious time and exposes you to many more injuries than the first that sparked it. Anger always outlasts hurt. Best to take the opposite course. “Would anyone think it normal to return a kick to a mule or a bite to a dog?”
The fundamental tenet of Stoicism is the only truly good is virtue, and the only truly bad is vice. One should think of anger as the worst of all vice, which creates an unending cycle of revenge until someone has the wisdom to stop it.
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On Making Mistakes
In this reflection, we turn to the philosopher Seneca (4 BC — 65 AD) for wisdom. Although the Stoics were most likely more virtuous than most, we should not assume they were incapable of vice. The Stoics believed sages are as rare as the phoenix, a mythical bird said to have risen from the ashes (according to lore, once every 500 years).
As Seneca put it,
Consider the most populous city or nation; what a solitude would it be if none should be left there but those that could stand the test of a severe justice! We should have neither judges nor accusers; none either to grant a pardon or to ask it. More or less, we are all sinners.
Seneca explained that it is dangerous for us too suddenly, or too quickly, to believe ourselves. “Let us examine, observe, and inspect our hearts,” wrote Seneca, “for we are our own greatest flatterers: every night, we must call ourselves to account.” Examine all our words and actions of the past day, and let nothing escape us; why should I fear the sight of my errors when I can admonish and forgive myself?
Seneca reminds us that we are not our past mistakes. It is within our power to forgive ourselves and within our power to learn, improve, and do better tomorrow.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful. If so, please consider sharing it with others.
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Image credit: The Death of Seneca
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