Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 5.17 ¶3 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 5.17 ¶3
Who does not leave the world with reluctance, and with lamentations? Yet it is the part of an ungrateful man not to be satisfied with the past. Your days will always be few if you count them. Reflect that length of time is not the greatest of blessings; make the best of your time, however short it may be; even if the day of your death be postponed, your happiness will not be increased, for life is merely made longer, not pleasanter, by delay. How much better is it to be thankful for the pleasures which one has received, not to reckon up the years of others, but to set a high value upon one’s own, and score them to one’s credit, saying, “God thought me worthy of this; I am satisfied with it; he might have given me more, but this, too, is a benefit.” Let us be grateful towards both gods and men, grateful to those who have given us anything, and grateful even to those who have given anything to our relatives.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 5.17 ¶3, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/5.17.3
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLeaving life with complaints is a kind of ingratitude, because it means being dissatisfied with the past. A longer life is not a greater good, since delay only makes life longer, not pleasanter, so be thankful for the pleasures received, value your own years rather than counting other people's, and be grateful to gods and to everyone who has helped you.
Older wording
- “lamentations”
- — loud expressions of grief
Themes and situations
- Gratitude
- Death and mortality
- Ageing
- Peace of mind
- Acceptance and fate
- Fear of death
- Getting older
- Feeling life is slipping by
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