Around two thousand years ago, the Stoic philosopher Seneca exchanged a series of letters (mainly to Lucilius) on wisdom, death, and everything in between. These letters are known today as Letters from a Stoic, and during the pandemic, sales increased by more than 700 percent due to the practical and timeless wisdom they provide.

Over the past couple of years, I've been slowly but surely reading Seneca's letters in search of wisdom for daily life. And started a "Sundays with Seneca" series on the Perennial Meditations podcast. I've also had the privilege of interviewing David Fideler (author of Breakfast with Seneca) and James Romm (author of Dying Every Day) on In Search of Wisdom.

Below is a collection of six lessons from Seneca on the good life that I've gathered along the way.

1. Value Time

In the letter titled On Saving Time, Seneca wrote,

"Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius — set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which until lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands."

Seneca urges us to remember that time is our most valuable resource. He asked Lucilius:

"What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily?"

For Seneca, we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the central portion of death has already passed. Whatever years behind us are in death's hands. Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow's. Nothing is ours except time.

2. Avoid Crowds

In a letter titled On Crowds, Seneca stressed to Lucilius:

"Do you ask me what you should regard as especially to be avoided? I say, crowds, for as yet you cannot trust yourself to them with safety. I shall admit my own weakness, at any rate, for I never bring back home the same character that I took abroad with me. Something of that which I have forced to be calm within me is disturbed; some of the foes that I have routed return again. Just as the sick man, who has been weak for a long time, is in such a condition that he cannot be taken out of the house without suffering a relapse, so we ourselves are affected when our souls are recovering from a lingering disease." […]

Seneca believed that consorting with the crowd is harmful; no person does not make some vice attractive to us. "The greater the mob with which we mingle, the greater the danger."

3. Find Balance

In a letter titled On the Philosopher's Mean, Seneca wrote,

"I commend you and rejoice in the fact that you are persistent in your studies and that, putting all else aside, you make it each day your endeavor to become a better man. I do not merely exhort you to keep at it; I actually beg you to do so."

Philosophy calls for plain living but not penance; we may be simple and neat simultaneously. "This is the mean by which I approve," observed Seneca, "our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of a sage and the ways of the world at large."

4. Friendship

In a letter titled, On True and False Friendship, Seneca explained,

"You have sent a letter to me through the hand of a "friend" of yours, as you call him. And in your very next sentence, you warn me not to discuss with him all the matters that concern you, saying that even you yourself are not accustomed to doing this; in other words, you have in the same letter affirmed and denied that he is your friend."

Seneca urges Lucilius to remember that if you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken. You do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means. Indeed, I would have you discuss everything with a friend; but first of all, discuss the man himself.

"When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment."

The letter continues with Seneca advising that one should ponder whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship for a long time, but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself.

5. Read Well

In a letter titled On Discursiveness in Reading, Seneca wrote,

"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."

Seneca calls us to focus on reading standard authors, and when we crave a change, fall back upon those whom we have read before. The point is to find each day something that will fortify ourselves against poverty, against death, and indeed against other misfortunes as well.

6. Find Happiness

According to the philosopher Seneca, we all want to live happy lives, but when it comes to discerning what makes life happy, we are in the dark. Seneca believed there wasn't anything more talked of and less understood than the business of a happy life.

In Seneca's On the Happy Life, he wrote,

It is every man's wish and design; and yet not one of a thousand that knows wherein that happiness consists. We live, however, in blind and eager pursuit of it; and the more haste we make in a wrong way, the further we are from our journey's end.

Therefore, the first task is to determine where we are headed and by what path. It is also wise to have an expert or someone who has already explored what we are advancing toward.

To quote Seneca one last time, "Let us seek out what is best to do, not what is the most established practice, and what can place us in possession of eternal happiness, not what is approved by the crowd."

Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.

If you're interested in learning more, check out Perennial Meditations on Substack or one of our podcasts.