Welcome to Sundays with Seneca on the Perennial Meditations podcast. Join the search for ancient lessons for modern living in the writing and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
In a letter known today as On Quibbling as Unworthy of the Philosopher, Seneca wrote,
In answer to the letter you wrote me while traveling—a letter as long as the journey itself—I shall reply later. I ought to go into retirement and consider what sort of advice I should give you. For you yourself, who consult me, also reflected for a long time whether to do so; how much more, then, should I myself reflect, since more deliberation is necessary for settling than in propounding a problem! And this is particularly true when one thing is advantageous to you and another to me. Am I speaking again in the guise of an Epicurean?
But the fact is, the same thing is advantageous to me, which is advantageous to you; for I am not your friend unless whatever is at issue concerning you is my concern also. Friendship produces between us a partnership in all our interests. There is no such thing as a good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in common. And no one can live happily who has regard for himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor if you would live for yourself.
