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August  25th

RESPECT THE PAST,   BUT BE  OPEN    TO  THE FUTURE

“Won’t  you be  walking in  your    predecessors’   footsteps?  I   surely  will    use the older   path,   but if  I

find    a   shorter and smoother    way,    I’ll    blaze   a   trail   there.  The ones    who pioneered   these   paths

aren’t  our masters,    but our guides. Truth   stands  open    to  everyone,   it  hasn’t  been    monopolized.”

—SENECA,    MORAL   LETTERS,    33.11

raditions are often time-tested best practices for doing something. But remember that today’s
conservative ideas were once controversial, cutting-edge, and innovative. This is why we can’t be
afraid to experiment with new ideas.
In Seneca’s case, he might be embracing some new philosophical insight that improves on the writing
of Zeno or Cleanthes. In our case, perhaps a breakthrough in psychology improves on the writing of
Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. Or perhaps we have a breakthrough of our own. If these ideas are true and
better, embrace them—use them. You don’t need to be a prisoner of dead old men who stopped learning
two thousand years ago.