Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 6.21 ¶3 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 6.21 ¶3
“Let the sun and moon cease to wish to benefit us,” says our adversary. I answer, “Remember what has been said. Who can be so crazy as to refuse the name of free-will to that which has no danger of ceasing to act, and of adopting the opposite course, since, on the contrary, he whose will is fixed forever, must be thought to wish more earnestly than anyone else. Surely if he, who may at any moment change his mind, can be said to wish, we must not deny the existence of will in a being whose nature does not admit of change of mind.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 6.21 ¶3, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/6.21.3
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA being whose will never changes still has a will, and in fact wills more firmly than one who can change his mind at any moment. Fixed goodness is stronger, not weaker, as a form of choice.
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Virtue and character
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