Accordingly, the happy life is the one that is in harmony with its own nature, and the only way it can be achieved is if, first, the mind is sound and constantly in possession of its sanity, and secondly, if it is brave and vigorous, and, in addition, capable of the noblest endurance, adapting to every new situation, attentive to the body and to all that affects it, but not in an anxious way, and finally, if it concerns itself with all the things that enhance life, without showing indie respect for any one of them, taking advantage of Fortune’s gifts, but not becoming their slave.
Seneca, ‘On the Happy Life’
Tagged: nature Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Doug Belshaw
-
Doug Belshaw
Once you have done a man a service, what more would you have? Is it not enough to have obeyed the laws of your own nature, without expecting to be paid for it? That is like the eye demanding a reward for seeing, or the feet for walking.
Marcus Aurelius
-
Doug Belshaw
Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity.W.H. Auden
Reply