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Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics) Paperback – July 30, 1969

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Author), Robin Campbell (Translator, Introduction)

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"It is philosophy that has the duty of protecting us...without it no one can lead a life free of fear or worry."

For several years of his turbulent life, Seneca was the guiding hand of the Roman Empire. His inspired reasoning derived mainly from the Stoic principles, which had originally been developed some centuries earlier in Athens. This selection of Seneca's letters shows him upholding the austere ethical ideals of Stoicism—the wisdom of the self-possessed person immune to overmastering emotions and life’s setbacks—while valuing friendship and the courage of ordinary men, and criticizing the harsh treatment of slaves and the cruelties in the gladiatorial arena. The humanity and wit revealed in Seneca’s interpretation of Stoicism is a moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Print length

254 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

July 30, 1969
Dimensions

0.58 x 5.1 x 7.8 inches
ISBN-10

9780140442106
ISBN-13

978-0140442106
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4BC-AD65) was born in Cordoba, Spain, where he was brought up studying the traditional virtues of republican Roman life. He became a teacher of rhetoric but attracted attention for his incisive style of writing. Closely linked to Nero, his death was ordered by the emperor in AD65. Seneca committed suicide.

Robin Campbell is a well-known translator.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0140442103
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (July 30, 1969)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780140442106
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140442106
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.58 x 5.1 x 7.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Classic Roman Literature
- #6 in Literary Letters
- #7 in Classic Greek Literature

Customer Reviews:
2,438 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Snubnosed in Alpha

Not the Penguin edition/Campbell translation

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2018

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The unflattering review is not for Seneca or his letters but for the false advertising.

Amazon indicates that the Kindle version is the Penguin edition with the Campbell translation. Not so.

I returned my e-copy for a refund.

182 people found this helpful

Helpful

Glenn Russell

"It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2015

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These letters of Roman philosopher Seneca are a treasure chest for anybody wishing to incorporate philosophic wisdom into their day-to-day living. By way of example, below are a few Seneca gems along with my brief comments:

"Each day acquire something which will help you to face poverty, or death, and other ills as well. After running over a lot of different thoughts, pick out one to be digested throughout the day." --------- I'm completely with Seneca on this point. I approach the study of philosophy primarily for self-transformation. There is no let-up in the various challenges life throws at us - what we can change is the level of wisdom we bring to facing our challenges.

"It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more." ---------- This is the perennial philosophy from Aristotle to Epicurus to Epictetus to Buddha: we have to face up to our predicament as humans; we are in the realm of desire. The goal of living as a philosopher is to deal with our desires in such a way that we can maintain our tranquility and joy.

"But if you are looking on anyone as a friend when you do not trust him (or her) as you trust yourself, you are making a grave mistake, and have failed to grasp sufficiently the full force of true friendship." --------- Friendship was one key idea in the ancient world that modern philosophy seems to have forgotten. Seneca outlines how we must first test and judge people we consider as possible friends, but once we become friends with someone, then an abiding and complete trust is required.

"The very name of philosophy however modest the manner in which it is pursued, is unpopular enough as it is: imagine what the reaction would be if we started dissociating ourselves from the conventions of society. Inwardly everything should be different but our outward face should conform with the crowd. Our clothes should not be gaudy, yet they should now be dowdy either. . . . Let our aim be a way of life not diametrically opposed to, but better than that of the mob.". ---------- The call of true philosophy isn't an outward display but an internal attitude. There is a long, noble tradition of living the life of a philosopher going back to ancient Greece and Rome, that has, unfortunately, been mostly lost to us in the West. It is time to reclaim our true heritage.

"You may be banished to the end of the earth, and yet in whatever outlandish corner of the world you may find yourself stationed, you will find that place, whatever it may be like, a hospitable home. Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there." -------- This is the ultimate Stoic worldview: our strength of character is more important that the particular life situation we find ourselves in. Very applicable in our modern world; although, chances are we will not be banished to another country, many of us will one day be banished to a nursing home.

"This rapidity of utterance recalls a person running down a slope and unable to stop where he meant to, being carried on instead a lot farther than he intended, at the mercy of his body's momentum; it is out of control, and unbecoming to philosophy, which should be placing her words, not throwing them around." --------- The ancient world had many people who talked a mile a minute, an unending gush of chatter. The Greco-Roman philosophers such as Seneca and Plutarch warn against garrulousness. Rather, we should mark our words well. From my own experience, when I hear long-winded pontifications, I feel like running away.

"The next thing I knew the book itself had charmed me into a deeper reading of it there and then. . . . It was so enjoyable that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break. All the time the sunshine was inviting me out, hunger prompting me to eat, the weather threatening to break, but I gulped it all down in one sitting." --------- Ah, the experience of being pulled into a good book! When we come upon such a book, go with it!

116 people found this helpful

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Video Shampoo

The original self-help book.

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2017

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This is a book that I keep next to my bed, and when I take trips it goes in my suitcase. I've given this book away several times and plan to give it away more, but I always buy a new one. Sometimes it's like looking into the mirror of western civilization, others it's like looking at our cultural family tree, but most of the time it's a book that consoles me and offers new perspectives no matter what I'm dealing with in life.

On my shelf this book is next to the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, and Stephen King.

It's also a book I've read passages aloud to my younger siblings during a day in the park -- that was no easy task -- but they were held captive by the introspection this book helps to trigger.

44 people found this helpful

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Luke

Excellent binding and printing

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2018

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Instead of reviewing the contents, which should be required reading for everyone, and which have absolutely withstood the test of time, I'll review the book itself.

The bindings are solid, the hard cover is good quality, and it has a ribbon bookmark. The whole book is rather small, a bit larger than the size of my hand -- when I ordered I was expecting something a bit larger, but it is small paperback size. Overall, the fit and finish remind me of my parents' collection of Encyclopedias Britannica (Britannicas?) from the 1950s.

All in all, I'd most definitely recommend this to collectors.

26 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Broudo

So it was to my great delight that I stumbled on Seneca's "Letters From a ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2015

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As I progress on my quest for wisdom from the classical periods I recently read Cicero's "Selected Works" and Lurcreius' "On the Nature of Things" both of which I thought lacked in any deep knowledge and found them both to be greatly disappointing. So it was to my great delight that I stumbled on Seneca's "Letters From a Stoic" which I highly recommend. Some of my favorite passages loosely organized around a theme are as follows:

On One's Relationship to the Material World:
*It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
*You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second having what is enough.
*Although the wise man does not hanker after what he has lost, he does prefer not lose them.
*The qualities of a just, a good and an enlightened character does not regard as valuable anything that can be taken away.
*I am not against possessing riches but I want to ensure that you possess them without tremors.

On One's Relationship to Society:
*Inwardly everything should be different but our outward face should conform to the crowd.
*The road is long if one poceeds by way of precepts but short and effectual if by way of personal example.
*You ask me to say what you should consider it particularly important to avoid. My answer is this: a mass crowd.
*Associating with people in large numbers is actually harmful.
*Retire into yourself as much as you can. Associate with people who are likely to improve you.
*Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob.
*If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people's opinions you will never be rich.

On One's Relationship to the Body:
*Pick (any exercise) for ease and straightforwardness...but whatever you do, return from body to mind very soon.
*Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there.
*A way of speaking which is restrained, not bold, suits a wise man in the same way as an unassuming sort of walk does.
*Refusal to be influenced by one's body assure one's freedom.
*People who know no self-restraint lead stormy and disordered lives.

On Death:
*Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.
*If God adds the morrow we should accept it joyfully.
*The man you should admire and imitate is the one who finds it a joy to live and in spite of that is not reluctant to die.
*You will go the way that all things go...This is the law to which you were born.
*You will die not because you are sick but because you are alive...In getting well again you may be escaping some ill health but not death.
*We are born unequal, we die equal.

On the Value of Philosophy/Stoicism:
*It molds and builds the personality, orders one's life, regulates one's conduct, shows one what one should do and what should leave undone, sits at the helm and keeps one on the course as one is tossed about in perilous seas.
*Only philosophy will wake us; only philosophy will shake us out of that heavy sleep. Devote yourself entirely to her.
*For the only safe harbor in this life's tossing, troubled sea is to refuse to be bothered about what the future will bring and to stand ready and confident, squaring the breast to take without skulking or flinching whatever fortune hurls at us.
*It is in not man's power to have whatever he wants; but he has it in his power not to wish for what he hasn't got.
*Part of the blame lies on the teachers of philosophy, who today teach us how to argue instead of how to live...The result has been the transformation of philosophy, the study of wisdom, into philology, the study of words.
*No man is good by accident, virtue has to be learned.

By the way, before renouncing all worldly possessions keep in mind that Seneca did not practice what he preached, was intimately attached to the material world, and readers interested in an excellent biography of Seneca's life and role during Nero's reign should consider reading James Romm's "Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero."

73 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

William Zunder

Seneca Our Contemporary

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2018

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It’s not often you read a classical author and feel you are reading one of your contemporaries. But this is the case with Seneca in these letters which he wrote to a friend in the early 60s AD. They are affable, witty, and supremely accessible. Perhaps the most striking thing about them is their materialist discourse at a time when religious explanations were widespread. For Seneca the universe consisted of matter informed by creative reason, the same reason that informs the human personality. Hence the Stoic assertion that god is within us, and that a virtuous life lived according to reason could achieve tranquillity, the state of being of the gods, if there are any. Ethics was accordingly the centre of philosophy for the Stoics, with their basic concepts of moderation, acceptance, and endurance. And the letters are filled with practical advice on how to live a virtuous and happy life, much of which seems eminently sensible today. There’s his advice, for example, on how to cope with the Saturnalia, the Roman festival later transformed into Christmas: don’t overindulge, but don’t opt out either. Stoicism, however, was the ideology of the ruling class, and it has the limitations of the class it derives from: self-direction, social and political conservatism, indifference to the plight of others. Its historical significance lies in becoming the personal ethic of Christianity, supplemented by the New Testament ethic of neighbourly love, after the adoption of Christianity by the Roman empire in the fourth century. An instructive and enlightening collection rendered in a sympathetic and unobtrusive translation.

52 people found this helpful

Renan Padua

Profound knowledge

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 4, 2020

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This is my first book review. I don't know much about how to classify a book, but I am impressed about the deep applicable knowledge shared in this book. Remarkably profound and sometimes touching. I love it. It should not be read too fast, instead, digested page by page.
It was the first philosophy book I read in a second language. I found it pleasant since Seneca often repeats the same idea more than once in order to improve comprehension. Very proficient people could maybe find it annoying, nevertheless, it was perfect for me.

22 people found this helpful

M De Sarkar

A beginner's source book of Stoicism.

Reviewed in India on June 12, 2018

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Are you someone who wants to utilize every spare moment for the betterment of his/her's intellect, mind and overall personality? Are you someone who believes that spending quality time with oneself in calm, secluded corners is a better option than being a part of the rabble-rousing crowd? Are you someone who is serious about the concept of personal virtue (and its evolution in a rapidly changing social order)? Above all, are you someone in whom the Upanishads strike a distinct chord? Then you positively owe it to yourself to get acquainted with Seneca. His will be the voice of a wiser older brother calmly guiding you through life's turbulent moments. More importantly, following his (and the Upanishads') advices will ensure those turbulent moments won't hit you as often as they would a lesser informed, unevolved individual. Finally, reading and meditating on ( 'sravana, manana and nididhyasana') the above-mentioned texts will to an extent ensure acceptance of the issue of Death with a logical, and relatively unruffled mind (provided you practice death mentally like the Stoics say, of course :-)).

Between the Stoics (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus), it's Seneca I find the most approachable and practical. Marcus Aurelius often veers to the overtly preachy while Epictetus sounds too simplistic at times. My two cents, reading Seneca with the Upanishads and Sankaracharya's 'Vivekachudamani' will round up one's approach to life. Although the Dover Editions version of 'Letters From a Stoic' is probably the one you should be getting.

76 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

A Selection of Letters

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2021

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Here we are given a selection of letters by Seneca the Younger, or more commonly called these days just Seneca. Not all the letters are included here as some of them are repetitions of subjects already mentioned, as well as other reasons, such as the corruption of the original or debate whether some were written by the great man himself.

It is worth reading the introduction to this book, especially if you are new to this author and want to know more about him. Here we are given the basics of his life as known and other pertinent facts, reminding us that although he had high ideals, like the rest of us he was also a hypocrite and therefore did not always meet his expectations. Although termed letters these are really what we would call essays and thus have been influential on many levels, not only just philosophy and influenced Montaigne to write essays. We know that these were written with the idea of having them published as they are well polished and take in philosophy and the human condition.

We can see that Seneca was arguably ahead of most people of his time, after all with regards to slaves, a common practice of the period and beyond, so our author points out that although they may be held for a variety of reasons, that does not stop them from being human, and should be treated just as respectfully as free people. This at the same time also takes in class structures and that even someone with the most menial of jobs should be treated equally with regards to politeness and so on. He also deplores the killing for killing’s sake of the arena. After all, when he comes on to writing what philosophy is and is not, so we are reminded that of the improvements and inventions that have been made in his period they have been done by others, with when philosophers are involved, it just being incidental that they are that as well.

Taking in stoicism and easily accessible with regards to reading and understanding so we are driven here to want to live a happy and complete life. We are reminded to think logically and so on, as common sense is a virtue as such, and that we should all respect and treat others accordingly. Of course, a pagan as such by the Christian religion, he was one of those people who were respected and incorporated into the new religious system, as his views on a full life does not actually go against religious beliefs and has been influential on what makes a good life.

Making for an interesting read, and at times with an injection of humour, so there are the usual things that you would expect from a Penguin edition, such as footnotes and so on, and also an appendix, which gives us Tacitus’ account of his death.

5 people found this helpful

Abhishek Debnath

Am I Missing Something?

Reviewed in India on March 20, 2020

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32 number of pages are missing! Page#65 to 96. Penguin is THE leading publishing house in the world. This edition is printed in India (at Thomson Press, New Delhi, no less. A renowned printing establishment themselves). No wonder. This is not the first time I've encountered some mishaps in a Penguin book which is manufactured in India. I'm not being sceptical, but surely something strange is happening with the book production industry in our country, even if the book is from a famed publisher such as Penguin. You tell me guys. Aren't the Penguin India (a part of Penguin Group worldwide) books oddly underwhelming (qualitywise) than the same title but printed elsewhere? What am I missing here?

(Though this is perhaps not the ideal expression of emotion from someone who is trying to read a book written by a stoic philosopher, right? But remember, i couldn't able to finish the book.)

27 people found this helpful