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Read Life Is Not Short Free

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PART I

On the Shortness of Life

De Brevitate Vitae

Seneca wrote this essay to his friend Paulinus, who was in charge of feeding the city of Rome. Making sure grain arrived and was handed out to millions of people was one of the most demanding jobs in the empire. Seneca's argument across twenty sections: life is not short. We just give most of it away.

  1. I.Life Is Not Short
  2. II.How We Throw It Away
  3. III.The Old Man's Accounting
  4. IV.The Most Powerful Man in the World Could Not Buy Leisure
  5. V.The Men Who Looked Like They Were Resting
  6. VI.How Time Gets Stolen
  7. VII.The Three Kinds of Time
  8. VIII.The Busy Life Is the Shortest Life
  9. IX.The Insanity of Postponement
  10. X.What the Greedy Do with Time
  11. XI.Living Long and Living Well Are Not the Same
  12. XII.What It Actually Means to Be Busy
  13. XIII.Useless Knowledge and What It Costs
  14. XIV.The Philosophers Have All the Time in the World
  15. XV.Philosophy Is Not an Academic Subject
  16. XVI.The People Who Want Death But Have Long Lives
  17. XVII.Even in Joy, the Fear
  18. XVIII.The Direct Challenge
  19. XIX.What Real Rest Looks Like
  20. XX.The Final Word

PART II

On Tranquility of Mind

De Tranquillitate Animi

This essay opens as a conversation. A young friend of Seneca's named Serenus comes to him with a feeling he cannot name: not miserable, but not at peace, not sick, but not well. Section I is in Serenus's own voice. From Section II to the end, Seneca answers. Seventeen sections in all.

  1. I.Serenus Describes the Problem
  2. II.The Diagnosis: The Restless Mind
  3. III.The First Remedy: Useful Work
  4. IV.Do Not Retreat Entirely
  5. V.Socrates Under the Thirty Tyrants
  6. VI.Know Yourself Before You Commit
  7. VII.Choose Your Companions with Care
  8. VIII.Property Is the Greatest Source of Human Sorrow
  9. IX.On Thrift and the Books You Do Not Read
  10. X.When You Are Trapped: What to Do
  11. XI.Hold Everything as Borrowed
  12. XII.Do Not Labor for What Is Vain
  13. XIII.Do Not Do Too Much
  14. XIV.An Easy Temper and Zeno's Shipwreck
  15. XV.The Right Attitude Toward Death
  16. XVI.Solitude and Society
  17. XVII.Laughter, Wine, and the Permission to Rest

PART III

On the Happy Life

De Vita Beata

Seneca wrote this essay to his older brother Gallio. Nineteen sections are gathered here. The first half defines what a happy life actually is and where it comes from. The second half answers people who accused Seneca of hypocrisy for preaching simplicity while living in wealth.

  1. I.Everyone Is Looking for It. Almost No One Finds It.
  2. II.Ask What Is Best, Not What Is Popular
  3. III.Follow Nature. Define the Goal.
  4. IV.The Highest Good Can Be Said Many Ways
  5. V.Happiness Requires Reason
  6. VI.Good Character and Pleasure Are Not Equals
  7. VII.Live According to Nature
  8. VIII.Good Character Is Its Own Reward
  9. IX.Pleasure as Second-in-Command
  10. X.What Epicurus Actually Said
  11. XI.The Soldier's Good Character
  12. XII.What True Happiness Promises
  13. XIII.The Charge of Hypocrisy
  14. XIV.The Same Charge Was Made Against Plato and Zeno
  15. XV.Even Failed Greatness Is Admirable
  16. XVI.Wealth Is a Servant, Not a Master
  17. XVII.How to Hold Wealth Honestly
  18. XVIII.Riches Are Slaves in One House and Masters in the Other
  19. XIX.I Will Not Alter My Course