Seneca, Moral Letters 21.5

In order that Idomeneus may not be introduced free of charge into my letter, he shall make up the indebtedness from his own account. It was to him that Epicurus addressed the well-known saying urging him to make Pythocles rich, but not rich in the vulgar and equivocal way. 

 

"If you wish," said he, "to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires."

 

This idea is too clear to need explanation, and too clever to need reinforcement. There is, however, one point on which I would warn you—not to consider that this statement applies only to riches; its value will be the same, no matter how you apply it. 

 

"If you wish to make Pythocles honorable, do not add to his honors, but subtract from his desires"; "if you wish Pythocles to have pleasure forever, do not add to his pleasures, but subtract from his desires"; "if you wish to make Pythocles an old man, filling his life to the full, do not add to his years, but subtract from his desires."

—from Seneca, Moral Letters 21

 

Most people I know will say that money is what they want the most, though some who consider themselves to be of a better class will express this in terms of winning a higher status. If I push them on this point, in my third-rate mimicry of Socrates, they might reconsider after a moment of reflection, but only to clarify how they money and the status turn out to be desirable for acquiring more things to give them pleasure. 

 

A neighbor of mine, otherwise quite a friendly fellow, liked to repeat the same joke over and over again, so often that it was clear he took it very seriously: “I don’t know if money can buy me more sex, or if sex can earn me more money, but I’m not complaining as long as I can get my hands on both of them!” 

 

I’m glad to see them grappling with the distinction between means and ends, but a little discouraged by the hasty assumption that life is all about the getting. We seem to overlook the possibility of happiness coming from the inside, from the quality of what we give, not from the outside, from the quantity of what we receive. 

 

Only when human nature is considered on its own terms will we recognize that the secret to contentment is not a secret at all, and how it revolves around the simple choice of mastering ourselves. 

 

What had been inconceivable can now be quite approachable and practical: instead of constantly trying to get far more stuff, I am rather deciding to be completely happy with far less stuff. After having wasted so much time on conquering the circumstances, never intended to be within my power, I am learning to tame my own desires and aversions, the only job Nature ever really gave me to begin with. 

 

It now makes more sense what someone means by saying he is rich because he chooses to be poor, honorable because he chooses to be humble, satisfied because he chooses to deny himself, fulfilled because he chooses to demand little. 

 

And when it comes to the matter of renown, he is worthy of the greatest praise because he chooses to be his own man, feeling no need to impress anyone at all.

 —Reflection written in 9/2012