Thread by @position_trader

A thread on my notes and highlights from the book "Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca.

Written in around 65 AD, the book is a literary masterpiece, and has had a great influence on me. I try to re-read it at least once a year.

(1/n)

“For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.”

The fear should not be of dying. The fear should be of not having lived life enough. We actually die everyday.

(2/n)

“While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”

We all have a limited amount of time. Yet, we take it for granted, just because the end point is uncertain.

Would you still take time for granted if you knew when it would end?

(3/n)

“The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.”

There is a difference in being alone and being lonely. Don’t lose any opportunity for solitude!

(4/n)

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."

Know what is enough. Don’t just know it, put a number on it. Otherwise, you will always find yourself chasing.

(5/n)

“Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.”

If you let your wants become your needs, you will always be wanting.

(6/n)

“No man has ever been so far advanced by Fortune that she did not threaten him as greatly as she had previously indulged him.”

Whatever Fate has given you, it can easily take away from you. It's yours on rent, not to own.

(7/n)

“He is a great man who uses earthenware dishes as if they were silver; but he is equally great who uses silver as if it were earthenware.”

If Fate has given you riches, enjoy it. Don’t shun your good fortune. But don’t be dependent on it.

(8/n)

“There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

We live our problems in our minds even before we come across them.

(9/n)

The problems might come. They might not come.

But we have already lived through them in our minds.

And if they do actually come, we go through them twice - once in our imagination, once in reality.

(10/n)

“It's the idle report that disturbs us most. For truth has its own definite boundaries, but that which arises from uncertainty is delivered over to the irresponsible license of a frightened mind.”

In reality, our problems have limits. In our imaginations, they have none.

(11/n)

“And even though it is ordained to be, what does it avail to run out to meet your suffering? You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives; so look forward meanwhile to better things.”

Anticipate problems, but don’t live them before they even arrive.

(12/n)

“Let another say. "Perhaps the worst will not happen." You yourself must say. "Well, what if it does happen?”

Think of the worst-case scenario. Most of the times, it is not as bad as you fear it to be.

(13/n)

“What Chance has made yours is not really yours.”

Whatever Fate has given you, it can easily take away from you too.

(14/n)

"If you would be loved, love."

Similar to Charlie Munger’s views on how to find a good spouse.

(15/n)

"The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live."

Do plan for tomorrow but don’t forget to live for today.

(16/n)

"If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich."

You will never have enough as long as you are competing with your neighbour.

(17/n)

"If you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man."

Reduce your wants, stick to the needs.

(18/n)

"The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles.”

You either crave for more or fear losing what you have.

(19/n)

“There are a few men whom slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.”

There is only one way to win the rat race - by quitting it.

(20/n)

“Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power to live long.”

Focus on the quality of your life; not quantity. The former is in your hands, the latter isn’t.

(21/n)

“One must not talk to a man unless he is willing to listen.”

Enough said.

(22/n)

“The archer ought not to hit the mark only sometimes; he ought to miss it only sometimes. That which takes effect by chance is not an art.”

Maybe he is referring here to most of those who make stock predictions on Twitter 😉

(23/n)

“Very often the things that cost nothing cost us the most heavily.”

Just because it doesn’t cost us any money doesn’t mean its free. It might cost you your attention, your time or even your freedom.

(24/n)

“Why do you torment yourself and lose weight over some problem which it is more clever to have scorned than to solve?”

You don’t have to take up every challenge or climb every peak or win every argument.

Most of the times, it’s better to just let it go.

(25/n)

“That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.”

Just think about it. What has Fortune actually not given.
What can you lay claim as actually your own?

(26/n)

"When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind."

Choose a path. You can take short-cuts, but for that too, you first need to know where you are headed.

(27/n)

“For nothing brings happiness unless it also brings calm; it is a bad sort of existence that is spent in apprehension.”

Most of the things we chase with the aim of achieving happiness bring about just the opposite; anxiety instead of calm.

(28/n)

“For sometimes it is an act of bravery even to live.”

Nothing to add.

(29/n)

“Two elements must therefore be rooted out once for all, – the fear of future suffering, and the recollection of past suffering; since the latter no longer concerns me, and the former concerns me not yet.”

The past brings regret; the future, anxiety. Live in the moment.

(30/n)

“We ought not to confine ourselves either to writing or to reading; the one, continuous writing, will cast a gloom over our strength, and exhaust it; the other will make our strength flabby and watery.”

Read AND write. Or at least, post a thread on Twitter! 😉

(31/n)

“The wise man's purpose in conducting his life is not to accomplish at all hazards what he tries, but to do all things rightly.”

The end does not justify the means. Period.

(32/n)

“The mathematician teaches me how to lay out the dimensions of my estates; but I should rather be taught how to lay out what is enough for a man to own.”

Don’t mistake the tool for the objective.

(33/n)

“A thatched roof once covered free men; under marble and gold dwells slavery.”

You are enslaved by what you crave.

(34/n)

“What is the happy life? It is peace of mind, and lasting tranquillity.”

Notice all this comes from within you. Yet, we insist on continuously chasing.

(35/n)

“Deeds that would be punished by loss of life when committed in secret, are praised by us because uniformed generals have carried them out.”

A statement that has stood the test of time. Remember, this was written in 64 AD.

(36/n)

“Crimes can be well guarded; free from anxiety they cannot be.”

"Good luck frees many men from punishment, but no man from fear."

Even crimes for which you escape punishment, come at a great cost - loss of peace of mind.

(37/n)

“You need never believe that anyone who depends upon happiness is happy!”

Seek and you shall lose it!

(38/n)

“If you would escape your troubles, you need not another place but another personality.”

Most of your troubles are of your accord and distractions are a mere temporary escape.

(39/n)

“That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure.”

Know what you change. More importantly, know what you cannot change. And then accept it.

(40/n)

“If you set a high value on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else.”

Freedom or rank.
Freedom or riches.
Freedom or power.

The choice is yours.

(41/n)

This thread in no way does the book any justice. If anything, I hope this thread will motivate you to read the book. It's a tough read, but a worthy read.

A book that, like all things actually matter, has stood the test of time.

End of Thread.

(42/42)