Minor Dialogues together with the Dialogue On Clemency by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Lucius Annaeus Seneca was one of the great Roman stoics philosophers, born in Spain, raised in Rome and exiled on Corsica by emperor Claudius. forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors. Senecas has contributed to Stoicism with a number of books, where he especially focuses on the ethical aspects of Stoicism. His works combines theory and practical advices and as such they are accessible for everyone to read. Seneca stresses the importance of confronting your own impermanence and face the fact of death. Also he in the Dialogue on Clemency he writes about the importance of practicing poverty and use wealth properly. From the book:
“..all these adventitious circumstances which glitter around us, such as children, office in the state, wealth, large halls, vestibules crowded with clients seeking vainly for admittance, a noble name, a well-born or beautiful wife, and every other thing which depends entirely upon uncertain and changeful fortune, are but furniture which is not our own, but entrusted to us on loan: none of these things are given to us outright: the stage of our lives is adorned with properties gathered from various sources, and soon to be returned to their several owners: some of them will be taken away on the first day, some on the second, and but few will remain till the end. We have, therefore, no grounds for regarding ourselves with complacency, as though the things which surround us were our own : they are only borrowed : we have the use and enjoyment of them for a time regulated by the lender, who controls his own gift: it is our duty always to be able to lay our hands upon what has been lent us with no fixed date for its return, and to restore it when called upon without a murmur: the most detestable kind of debtor is he who rails at his creditor.”
The book is here prepared as a Public Domain PDF e-book ready for download (452 pages/32MB):
