Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Leisure 1 ¶3 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1889)
Seneca, On Leisure 1 ¶3
We are they who are so far from indulging in any leisure until we die, that if circumstances permit it, we do not allow ourselves to be at leisure even when we are dying. Why do you preach the maxims of Epicurus in the very headquarters of Zeno? nay, if you are ashamed of your party, why do you not go openly altogether over to the enemy rather than betray your own side?” I will answer this question straightaway: What more can you wish than that I should imitate my leaders? What then follows? I shall go whither they lead me, not whither they send me.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Leisure 1 ¶3, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1889)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-leisure/1.3
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe imagined objector accuses the author of preaching Epicurean ideas in the camp of the Stoic founder and of betraying his own side. The reply is that he is simply following the example of his school's leaders wherever they lead him, which is not the same as where they order him to go.
Older wording
- “whither”
- — to where
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Duty and roles
- Solitude and retreat
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