• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Farnam Street Logo

Farnam Street

Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out

  • Newsletter
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • Log In
  • Become a Member
TweetEmailLinkedInPrint
Reading|Reading Time: 2 minutes

Seneca On Reading

The more I read Seneca the more I like the man.

I read Susanna Braund’s translation of De Clementia in 2011 but never got around to reading more. My mistake.

Writing in Antifragile, Nassim Taleb says of Seneca:

His work has seduced people like me and most of the friends to whom I introduced to his books, because he speaks to us; he walked the walk, and he focused on the practical aspect of Stoicism, down to the how to take a trip, how to handle oneself while committing suicide (which he was ordered to do) or mostly, how to handle adversity and poverty and, even more critically, wealth.

Searching my bookshelf for what I could find on Seneca, I settled on the epistles, in which he writes about moral and ethical questions, relating to personal experiences.

While many of these have been lost, 124 exist.

On Discursiveness in Reading

I thought this brief passage, from Seneca, IV, Loeb Classical Library Edition, offered something to think about this weekend.

The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company. Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner. Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. There is nothing so efficacious that it can be helpful while it is being shifted about. And in reading of many books is distraction.
[…]

Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. This is my own custom; from the many things which I have read, I claim some one part for myself.

Read Next

Next Post:Marshall McLuhan: Old Versus New Assumptions Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), for those unfamiliar with him, rocketed from an unknown academic to rockstar with the publication of …

Discover What You’re Missing

Get the weekly email full of actionable ideas and insights you can use at work and home.


As seen on:

New York Times logo
Wall Street Journal logo
The Economist logo
Financial Times logo
Farnam Street Logo

© 2025 Farnam Street Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Proudly powered by WordPress. Hosted by Pressable. See our Privacy Policy.

  • About
  • Sponsorship
  • Speaking
  • Support

We’re Syrus Partners.
We buy amazing businesses.


Farnam Street participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon.