Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: Men deserve praise for engaging in profitable…
Men deserve praise for engaging in profitable studies, even though they stop short of producing any results. Why need we wonder if those who begin to climb a steep path do not succeed in ascending it very high? yet, if you be a man, look with respect on those who attempt great things, even though they fall.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Not every worthy effort ends in a visible win. You can train hard and not make the team. You can start a company that fails, write a book that goes nowhere, or try to repair a relationship that still ends. The modern instinct is to judge all of that as wasted time. Seneca disagrees. Attempting difficult, valuable things changes us even when the result does not cooperate. It teaches skill, humility, endurance, and the willingness to risk being seen trying. We should reserve respect not only for the people at the summit, but also for the people who began the climb. That includes you. Do not make success the only condition under which you grant yourself dignity. Choose an aim that is genuinely worth the effort, do the work cleanly, and accept that the outcome has partners besides your will.
Related passages
- Seneca Believe me: true joy is a weighty matter. Can anyone face death, poverty, restrained pleasure, and pain with ease…
- Seneca Why be indignant? Why protest? This is the task for which we are made.
- Seneca You must now show a virtue equal to hers, recall your mind from grief, and take care that no one may think that you…