Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 3.4 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 3.4
Here I must do Epicurus the justice to say that he constantly complains of our ingratitude for past benefits, because we cannot bring back again, or count among our present pleasures, those good things which we have received long ago, although no pleasures can be more undeniable than those which cannot be taken from us. Present good is not yet altogether complete, some mischance may interrupt it; the future is in suspense, and uncertain; but what is past is laid up in safety. How can any man feel gratitude for benefits, if he skips through his whole life entirely engrossed with the present and the future? It is remembrance that makes men grateful; and the more men hope, the less they remember.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 3.4, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/3.4
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGood things that are already in the past are the safest pleasures, because nothing can take them back, while the present can be interrupted and the future is uncertain. People who live only in the present and the future, always hoping, forget past kindnesses and so are ungrateful. Remembering is what makes a person grateful.
Older wording
- “engrossed”
- — completely absorbed
- “mischance”
- — bad luck
Themes and situations
- Gratitude
- Time and the present
- Change and impermanence
- Peace of mind
- Bereavement
- Getting older
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