Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 7.17 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 7.17
I think here we ought to make a distinction, in order to render this point more intelligible. Benefits are of two kinds: one, the perfect and true benefit, which can only be bestowed by one wise man upon another; the other, the common vulgar form which ignorant men like ourselves interchange. With regard to the latter, there is no doubt that it is my duty to repay it whether my friend turns out to be a murderer, a thief, or an adulterer. Crimes have laws to punish them; criminals are better reformed by judges than by ingratitude; a man ought not to make you bad by being so himself. I will fling a benefit back to a bad man, I will return it to a good man; I do so to the latter, because I owe it to him; to the former, that I may not be in his debt.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 7.17, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/7.17
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThere are two kinds of favour: the perfect kind that only wise people exchange, and the ordinary kind that most of us trade. The ordinary kind should be repaid even to someone who turns out to be a criminal, because the law punishes crime and a man ought not to make you worse by being bad himself.
Older wording
- “vulgar”
- — ordinary or common
Themes and situations
- Gratitude
- Justice and fairness
- Virtue and character
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