🏛️ Sundays with Seneca
Sundays with Seneca is a weekly series exploring the writings (and Stoic philosophy) of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Each meditation delivers a contemporary interpretation of one of Seneca’s letters, accompanied by a reflection exercise. *** This series is exclusive to members.
Choose Companions, Not Crowds
Letter 7, On Crowds
You ask me what you should particularly avoid. I say: crowds. For right now, you cannot trust yourself among them to be safe. I will admit my own weakness, at least: I never come home with the same character I set out with. Something I had pushed into calm is stirred up again; some of the enemies I thought I had defeated return.
Just as a person who has been sick for a long time cannot be taken out of the house without risking a relapse, so it is with us when our souls are healing from a long illness.
Mingling with the crowd is dangerous. No one can avoid making some vice appealing to us, or leaving its mark on us, or infecting us without noticing.
The larger the crowd we join, the greater the risk.
How Cruelty Infects Us
Nothing harms good character more than the habit of idling at public shows, because it is there that vice sneaks in through pleasure.
What do I mean?
