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Tend your own gardens, together. Seneca, Epistles 5.48.1-3

A nice meditation on friendship, from Seneca. Ad epistulam quam mihi ex itinere misisti, tam longam quam ipsum iter fuit, postea rescribam; seducere me debeo et quid suadeam circumspicere. Nam tu quoque, qui consulis, diu an consuleres cogitasti: quanto magis hoc mihi faciendum est, cum longiore mora opus sit ut solvas quaestionem quam ut proponas? utique cum aliud tibi expediat, aliud mihi. Iterum ego tamquam Epicureus loquor? mihi vero idem expedit quod tibi: aut non sum amicus, nisi quidquid agitur ad te pertinens meum est. Consortium rerum omnium inter nos facit amicitia; nec secundi quicquam singulis est nec adversi; in commune vivitur. Nec potest quisquam beate degere qui se tantum intuetur, qui omnia ad utilitates suas convertit: alteri vivas oportet, si vis tibi vivere. Haec societas diligenter et sancte observata, quae nos homines hominibus miscet et iudicat aliquod esse commune ius generis humani, plurimum ad illam quoque de qua loquebar interiorem societatem amicitiae colend
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Two cities. Marcus Aurelius 6.44

Marcus lays out his own approach to life, one that finds good by recourse to communal standards (evident in religion, and in shared human and animal interaction). What is not good for the community he inhabits he categorically rejects as good for himself. This reveals a conception of good that will not work in most modern environs (which presume a level of autonomy in the individual self that is largely alien to antiquity, not just Marcus: philosophers intent upon individual ethics, as opposed to communal, were seen as strange, mad, even dangerous; this is one of the problems Athens has with Socrates). Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἐβουλεύσαντο περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐμοὶ συμβῆναι ὀφειλόντων οἱ θεοί, καλῶς ἐβουλεύσαντο· ἄβουλον γὰρ θεὸν οὐδὲ ἐπινοῆσαι ῥᾴδιον, κακοποιῆσαι δέ με διὰ τίνα αἰτίαν ἔμελλον ὁρμᾶν; τί γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἢ τῷ κοινῷ, οὗ μάλιστα προνοοῦνται, ἐκ τούτου περιεγένετο; εἰ δὲ μὴ ἐβουλεύσαντο κατ’ ἰδίαν περὶ ἐμοῦ, περί γε τῶν κοινῶν πάντως ἐβουλεύσαντο, οἷς κατ’ ἐπακολούθησιν καὶ ταῦτα συμβαίνοντα ἀσπ
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Events cannot persuade us. Unamuno, Life 9.3

Faith, trust, confidence: Unamuno believes that these are for people, not things. It is easier for him to trust the ignorance of a person than to have faith in knowledge or information, as things in themselves. La fe que definió San Pablo, la πίστις , pistis , griega, se traduce mejor por confianza. La voz pisti s, en efecto, procede del verbo πείθω , peitho, que si en su voz activa significa persuadir, en la media equivale a confiar en uno, hacerle caso, fiarse de él, obedecer. Y fiarse, fidare se , procede del tema fid— de donde fides , fe, y de donde también confianza —. Y el tema griego πιθ —pith— y el latino fid parecen hermanos. Y en resolución, que la voz misma fe lleva en su origen implícito el sentido de confianza, de rendimiento a una voluntad ajena, a una persona. Sólo se confía en las personas. Confíase en la Providencia que concebimos como algo personal y consciente, no en el Hado, que es algo impersonal. Y así se cree en quien nos dice la verdad, en quien nos da
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The furious spirit of kings. Seneca, Epistles 5.47.18-21

Seneca finishes his epistle on how masters should relate to servants, showcasing the abiding contempt that Romans had for kings, even in the age of the emperors. Note his warning about the power of luxury: having our every whim catered to makes us naturally furious, inclined to rage whenever the least little thing is denied us (whether by accident or on purpose, by human intervention or by nature). Dicet aliquis nunc me vocare ad pilleum servos et dominos de fastigio suo deicere, quod dixi, colant potius dominum quam timeant. Ita inquit prorsus? colant tamquam clientes, tamquam salutatores? Hoc qui dixerit obliviscetur id dominis parum non esse quod deo sat est. Qui colitur, et amatur: non potest amor cum timore misceri. Rectissime ergo facere te iudico quod timeri a servis tuis non vis, quod verborum castigatione uteris: verberibus muta admonentur. Non quidquid nos offendit et laedit; sed ad rabiem cogunt pervenire deliciae, ut quidquid non ex voluntate respondit iram evocet. Regum
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All things work together. Marcus Aurelius 6.43

Marcus' view of nature: the entire universe is a rhythmic expression of purposeful motion that repeats itself in the manner of a dance, with periods punctuated by final events (such as birth & death, in the animal life familiar to us). All the things we see around us—sun, rain, stars, subtle processes of healing & conceiving that require us to shrink & to grow, to die & to be reborn—are significant parts of this great dance. Even when these parts appear at odds, as the bright sun drying & the dark water drenching, still in the end they are working together, in perfect natural harmony. Our place is to move with them, making our own entrance & exit on the divine dance-floor as skillfully as we can. Μήτι ὁ ἥλιος τὰ τοῦ ὑετίου ἀξιοῖ ποιεῖν; μήτι ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς τὰ τῆς Καρποφόρου (†); τί δὲ τῶν ἄστρων ἕκαστον; οὐχὶ διάφορα μέν, συνεργὰ δὲ πρὸς ταὐτόν; Would the sun ever deign to achieve what the rain does? Would Asclepius do the work of fertile Demeter? What about ea
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We trust people, not events. Unamuno, Life 9.2

Unamuno believes that faith is ultimately a matter of belief, which in his mind means that it is always doubtful of material events & directed properly toward persons rather than things. We trust people, even when they are unable to deliver perfectly on particular promises (because of misunderstanding or misfortune). We do not trust events. Pero la fe, que es al fin y al cabo algo compuesto en que entra un elemento conocitivo, lógico o racional juntamente con uno afectivo, biótico o sentimental, y en rigor irracional, se nos presenta en forma de conocimiento. Y de aquí la insuperable dificultad de separarla de un dogma cualquiera. La fe pura, libre de dogmas, de que tanto escribí en un tiempo, es un fantasma. Ni con inventar aquello de la fe en la fe misma se salía del paso. La fe necesita una materia en que ejercerse . El creer es una forma de conocer, siquiera no fuese otra cosa que conocer nuestro anhelo vital y hasta formularlo. Sólo que el término creer tiene en nuestro lengua
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Family is for love, not fear. Seneca, Epistles 5.47.13-17

Seneca imagines haughty Roman nobles objecting to the free and friendly approach to slaves that he is recommending to Lucilius. Imagines and dismisses them. Hoc loco acclamabit mihi tota manus delicatorum nihil hac re humilius, nihil turpius. Hos ego eosdem deprehendam alienorum servorum osculantes manum. Ne illud quidem videtis, quam omnem invidiam maiores nostri dominis, omnem contumeliam servis detraxerint? Dominum patrem familiae appellaverunt, servos, quod etiam in mimis adhuc durat, familiares; instituerunt diem festum, non quo solo cum servis domini vescerentur, sed quo utique; honores illis in domo gerere, ius dicere permiserunt et domum pusillam rem publicam esse iudicaverunt. Quid ergo? omnes servos admovebo mensae meae? Non magis quam omnes liberos. Erras si existimas me quosdam quasi sordidioris operae reiecturum, ut puta illum mulionem et illum bubulcum. Non ministeriis illos aestimabo sed moribus: sibi quisque dat mores, ministeria casus assignat. Quidam cenent tecum qu
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