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Seneca · Moral Letters to Lucilius

Letter 85 — On Some Vain Syllogisms (§31)

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Certain of the Stoic school reply to this argument as follows: “The pilot becomes a worse pilot because of storms or squalls, inasmuch as he cannot carry out his purpose and hold to his course; as far as his art is concerned, he becomes no worse a pilot, but in his work he does become worse.” To this the Peripatetics retort: “Therefore, poverty will make even the wise man worse, and so will pain, and so will anything else of that sort. For although those things will not rob him of his virtue, yet they will hinder the work of virtue.”
Seneca·Letter 85 — On Some Vain Syllogisms (§31)·trans. Gummere
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