Podcast
The Daily Stoic
The speaker referenced Seneca's words about choosing whose children we would like to be, as we can choose our role models and mentors.
We like to say that we don't get to choose our parents, Seneca said, that they were given to us by chance. Yet truly, we can choose whose children we'd like to be.
— Episode: We All Carry A Debt (Will We Repay?) | R...
Episode: We All Carry A Debt (Will We Repay?) | Role Models
The speaker referenced Seneca's words about choosing whose children we would like to be, as we can choose our role models and mentors.
We like to say that we don't get to choose our parents, Seneca said, that they were given to us by chance. Yet truly, we can choose whose children we'd like to be.
Episode: Where Are You Trying To Get Better? | Do Not Be De...
This book, containing writings by Seneca, was referenced as a source for a quote used in the podcast's meditation. The podcast host called it one of their favorite collections of Seneca's writings.
In today's reading and meditation from The Daily Stoic, Ryan examines why Seneca stated that "no one is crushed by fortune unless they are first deceived by her," and the folly of trusting in fortune. You can read more of Seneca's views in On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long If You Know How to Use It.
It's a beautiful, as said you can read it in on the shortness of life one of my favorite little collections of Seneca's writings but we'll get to the quote now he says no one is crushed by fortune unless they are first deceived by her.
if you haven't read on the shortness of life pick up a copy there and the pain of porch if you could all I'll link to it in today's episode right there's something sweet about the fact that Sennaqa is the one exiled but he's writing the consolation to his mother
Episode: We Can Give This to Each Other | Be Stingy With Ti...
The essay was described as Seneca's greatest piece of writing on the shortness of life and a powerful work worth rereading a couple of times a year. The core message was that life is long enough if one knows how to use it, but people often waste it through luxury and neglect.
In what is almost certainly his greatest piece of writing on the shortness of life, Seneca is writing to his newly retired father-in-law, Polinus.
It is not that we all have too short a time to live, Seneca says, But that we squander a great deal of it. Life is long enough, and it's given in sufficient measure to do many great things if we spend it well.
We're all the geniuses of history to focus on a single theme. They could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give even an inch of their estate or the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay. Yet we easily let others encroach on our lives.
We're tight-fisted with our property and money, and yet we think too little of wasting time. The one thing we should all be the toughest misers about.
And this all comes from his wonderful essay on the shortness of life, which you should absolutely read. It's a very powerful essay. It's worth rereading a couple times a year, to be quite frank.