Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: Revenge takes up much time, and throws itself in…
Revenge takes up much time, and throws itself in the way of many injuries while it is smarting under one. We all retain our anger longer than we feel our hurt: how far better it were to take the opposite course and not meet one mischief by another.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Revenge is expensive. It consumes time, attention, and opportunities that have nothing to do with the original offense. While you are planning how to get even, you may miss the work, relationships, and pleasures that could move your life forward. And anger has a strange habit of outliving the wound. The event fades, but the grudge becomes part of your identity. Do not confuse remembering a lesson with keeping a case open forever. You can protect yourself, seek repair, or impose a boundary without making revenge your project. Ask what would make your life better from here, rather than what would make theirs worse. Often the answer is boring but liberating: stop checking, stop talking about it, stop building the prosecution. A single injury need not become the organizer of your future.
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