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Seneca's Letters From A Stoic

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In the book “Letters from a Stoic” Seneca illustrates the idea of how to obtain happiness by recognizing and dealing with negative emotions, being in a miserable state of mind, companionship and challenging hardships. Today people may rely on externals to keep them happy but in all actuality it is following the moral research from wise men to obtain peace and happiness internally. Often people may seek refuge by going away on a vacation to dismiss themselves temporarily from problems. In the letter 18 it teaches why that may not be the successful and the right way to go about bettering your happiness. In today’s world majority of people in the middle class try to make ends meet by going to work eating and sleeping. Some may be miserable at …show more content…

In contrast to Epictetus the company you surround yourself by their personality traits will rub off on you. Seneca states “So long as you associate with a person who’s mean and grasping you will remain a money minded individual yourself. So long as you keep arrogant company, just so long will conceit stick to you.” This quote can regard to life in general not just travelling. If in a workforce everyone is arrogant try your best to move on to better company. If you go on a vacation with a bad minded individual you will have a bad experience. Sometimes it may not be the company we’d bring with us to travels fault for an unpleasant experience. You may be the one making the whole traveling an unpleasant vacation experience a by bringing baggage from the problems you’re trying to get away from. Seneca says “All this hurrying from place to place won’t bring you any relief for you’re travelling in the company of your own emotions followed by your troubles all the way.” As people who work hard every day may be so infatuated by the thought of traveling and once they’re on a plane they still remain miserable because of their problems wonders their minds which can create a hostile mood or just simply an unpleasant

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Seneca writes this statement in the context of the letter he is writing to his friend Paulinus who works in the corn trade. Seneca attempts to explain that because of the title he has Paulinus does not have any time free to spend on leisure. This still remains applicable if you replace the corn trade for any other statistic of today’s day and age such as the stock market. This can be easily misinterpreted because the state of the corn trade is not applicable to our everyday life, however in context it makes much more sense. Seneca is attempting to appeal to the fact that Paulinus should not worry about the state of the corn trade after he retires from his position, because he should be concentrating on spending his time at leisure.

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