Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: “He gave me the praetorship. Yes, but I had…
“He gave me the praetorship. Yes, but I had hoped for the consulship. He bestowed the twelve axes upon me: true, but he did not make me a regular consul. He allowed me to give my name to the year, but he did not help me to the priesthood.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Discontent has no natural finish line. You get the promotion and immediately notice the title you did not receive. You earn more money and compare yourself with someone earning more. You are invited in, but not seated close enough to the center. Gratitude becomes impossible when every gain is measured against the next unavailable prize. Ambition itself is not the problem. The problem is making your peace conditional on a ladder that always has another rung. Notice how often a complaint begins with something you have already been given. That is a useful warning. Take stock of what is real: the opportunity, the trust, the work, the people who chose you. Then decide whether to pursue more from a place of purpose rather than grievance. You can want the next role without treating the present one as an insult.
Related passages
- Seneca When I return from seeing it I am a sadder, though not a worse man, I cannot walk amid my own paltry possessions with…
- Marcus Aurelius As the ordinary shows of the theatre and of other such places, when thou art presented with them, affect thee; as the…
- Seneca If you were to bring to me all the money from all our mines, which we are at this moment sinking, if you were to bring…