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Seneca · Moral Letters to Lucilius

Letter 116 — On Self-control (§5)

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I think that Panaetius gave a very neat answer to a certain youth who asked him whether the wise man should become a lover: “As to the wise man, we shall see later; but you and I, who are as yet far removed from wisdom, should not trust ourselves to fall into a state that is disordered, uncontrolled, enslaved to another, contemptible to itself. If our love be not spurned, we are excited by its kindness; if it be scorned, we are kindled by our pride.
Seneca·Letter 116 — On Self-control (§5)·trans. Gummere
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