Dear Fellow Mortal,
We have access to more books, articles, podcasts, and ideas than Seneca could have imagined. Yet his warning feels strangely suited to our time: consuming more wisdom does not necessarily make us wiser.
This week’s letter is an invitation to slow down—to stay with good ideas long enough for them to become part of us. Perhaps we don’t need another book or another answer. Perhaps we need to practice something we already know.
Be wise and be well.
J.W.
Sundays with Seneca
Sundays with Seneca is a series exploring the writings and Stoic philosophy of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Each meditation offers a contemporary interpretation of one of Seneca’s letters, along with a reflection exercise. *** This series is exclusive to members.
Seneca on Reading Less, But Better
Letter 2 — On Discursiveness in Reading
Judging by what you write and by what I hear about you, I have a good feeling about your progress. You are no longer running here and there, distracting yourself by constantly changing your surroundings. That kind of restlessness is usually the sign of an unsettled mind.
One of the first signs of a well-ordered mind is the ability to remain in one place and be comfortable in one's own company.
But be careful that the same restlessness does not appear in your reading.
Reading too many authors and too many kinds of books can make the mind scattered and unsteady. You must spend time with a limited number of great thinkers and digest their works if you want their ideas to take firm hold in you.
Everywhere means nowhere.
A person who spends his whole life traveling may acquire many acquaintances but few friends. The same is true of someone who never stays with a single author long enough to know him but instead rushes from one book to another.
Food does no good if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten. Nothing interferes with healing more than constantly changing medicines. A wound will not heal when one treatment is replaced by another. A plant that is repeatedly moved never grows strong.
Nothing can benefit us if we do not remain with it long enough for it to work.
The same is true of books.
Since you cannot read every book you possess, it should be enough to possess only as many as you can actually read.
“But,” you say, “I like dipping into one book and then another.”
Be careful. Sampling too many dishes may satisfy the appetite for variety without providing much nourishment. Read the great authors. And when you desire something different, return to something good that you have already read.
Do not always seek something new.
Learn What Is Enough
Each day, take something from your reading that strengthens you against poverty, death, or whatever else life may bring.
