Stoic Reflections Issue №8
“All the rest is a dithering while Rome burns.” — Terence McKenna
I was reminded of the quote above when I was reading Seneca this week.
I purchased a small book of Seneca’s that’s titled, On The Happy Life. Each chapter feels like musings written on a particular topic. It’s not like other philosophy books that seem to build an argument over time and establish claim on top of claim.
The phrase above is a reminder that we shouldn’t be wasting our time with what’s frivolous and unimportant. We shouldn’t be frittering away our limited time on this earth to doing what’s not our purpose.
Seneca reminds us of this too, in the chapter titled, Philosophy Is The Guide Of Life;
“What have we to do with frivolous and captious questions and impertinent niceties? Let us pass over all our most solemn levities, and make haste for a good life, which is a thing that presses us. Shall a man that goes for a midwife, stand gaping upon a post to see ‘what play today?’ or, when his house is on fire, stay the curling of a periwig before he calls for help? Our houses are on fire, our country invaded, our goods taken away, our children in danger…Is this a time for us now to be playing fast and loose with idle questions, which are in effect so many unprofitable riddles?” —…
