“The founder of the universe, who assigned to us the laws of life, provided that we should live well, but not in luxury. Everything needed for our well-being is right before us, whereas what luxury requires is gathered by many miseries and anxieties. Let us use this gift of nature and count it among the greatest things.”
SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 119.15b
Seneca was very wealthy, so it’s an interesting quote from him in today’s entry in The Daily Stoic. Despite his riches, he realized that you don’t need luxury to be happy, and you don’t require wealth to be satisfied.
We can live well — and indeed we should live well, and enjoy the bounties of nature as we were intended to. However, we shouldn’t be consumed with a desire to live well, or to live a life of opulence. (You might even want to run away from luxury.)
Always seeking luxury means that you will suffer many “miseries and anxieties” along the way, as Seneca indicated. And chasing wealth (and the misery that comes with it) will take your focus off of stoic philosophy and a life of constant learning. You’ll be focused on the wrong thing, the thing that doesn’t truly matter. Chasing luxury means leaving behind truth and your natural state of peace.
Live well, but skip the luxury, and grab the happiness that’s right in front of you instead of chasing the future.
