Seneca, Moral Letters 21.6

There is no reason why you should hold that these words belong to Epicurus alone; they are public property. I think we ought to do in philosophy as they are wont to do in the Senate: when someone has made a motion, of which I approve to a certain extent, I ask him to make his motion in two parts, and I vote for the part which I approve. 

 

So I am all the more glad to repeat the distinguished words of Epicurus, in order that I may prove to those who have recourse to him through a bad motive, thinking that they will have in him a screen for their own vices, that they must live honorably, no matter what school they follow.

 

Go to his Garden and read the motto carved there: "Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure." 

 

The caretaker of that abode, a kindly host, will be ready for you; he will welcome you with barley meal and serve you water also in abundance, with these words: "Have you not been well entertained?" 

 

"This garden," he says, "does not whet your appetite; it quenches it. Nor does it make you more thirsty with every drink; it slakes the thirst by a natural cure—a cure that demands no fee. This is the 'pleasure' in which I have grown old." 

—from Seneca, Moral Letters 21

 

If it is true, it will make no difference which tribe happens to claim ownership, as understanding is something that is open and free to everyone. There is something so refreshing about a Stoic cosmopolitanism, where I don’t need to worry if I’m going through the correct motions or wearing the proper tie. 

 

Stand together with the Epicurean on the necessity of temperance, and respectfully depart on the priority of the appetites or the rejection of Providence. Gently remind the grasping man, who seeks out a school to justify his convenience and gratification, that philosophy is impossible without a commitment to virtue, and that he too is called to submit his preferences to principles. 

 

Plato had his Academy, and Aristotle had his Lyceum, and Zeno liked to spend his time at the Stoa Poikile. Epicirus also had a favorite haunt, a garden outside of Athens, and the Academician, or the Peripatetic, or the Stoic can all benefit from contemplating that place and the values it represented. 

 

Despite the notable contrasts between Stoicism and Epicureanism, a careful reflection will reveal that, when it comes to the practice of daily living, the pursuit of self-control and moderation was dear to both models. How sharply this diverges from a crude and thoughtless obsession with acquisition and consumption, the way of those whose bellies have rejected the guidance of their heads! 

 

Dress it up in all the finery you like, but lust, gluttony, and avarice are symptoms of a tragically distorted human nature. How can there be satisfaction when no amount is ever enough, or peace when engaged in an endless state of war? 

 

Serenity and liberty rest in no longer permitting myself to be bought and sold. 

—Reflection written in 9/2012