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August  28th

THE OPULENT STOIC

“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

ven in his own time, Seneca was criticized for preaching Stoic virtues while accumulating one of the
largest fortunes in Rome. Seneca was so rich that some historians speculate that major loans he made
to the inhabitants of what is now Britain caused what became a horrifically brutal uprising there. His
critics’ derisive nickname for him was “The Opulent Stoic.”
Seneca’s response to this criticism is pretty simple: he might have wealth, but he didn’t need it. He
wasn’t dependent on it or addicted to it. Nor, despite his large bank account, was he considered to be
anything close to Rome’s most lavish spenders and pleasure hunters. Whether his rationalization was true
or not (or whether he was a tad hypocritical), his is a decent prescription for navigating today’s
materialistic and wealth-driven society.
This is the pragmatic instead of the moralistic approach to wealth.
We can still live well without becoming slaves to luxury. And we don’t need to make decisions that
force us to continue to work and work and work and drift further from study and contemplation in order to
get more money to pay for the things we don’t need. There is no rule that says financial success must mean
that you live beyond your means. Remember: humans can be happy with very little.