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December    22nd

STAKE   YOUR    OWN CLAIM

“For    it’s    disgraceful for an  old person, or  one in  sight   of  old age,    to  have    only    the knowledge

carried in  their   notebooks.  Zeno    said    this    .   .   .   what    do  you say?    Cleanthes   said    that    .   .   .   what    do

you say?    How long    will    you be  compelled   by  the claims  of  another?    Take    charge  and stake   your

own claim—something posterity   will    carry   in  its notebook.”

—SENECA,    MORAL   LETTERS,    33.7

using in his notebook about the topic of immortality, Ralph Waldo Emerson complained how
writers dance around a difficult topic by relying on quotes. “I hate quotation,” he wrote. “Tell me
what you know.”
Seneca was throwing down the same gauntlet some twenty centuries before. It’s easier to quote, to rely
on the wise words of others. Especially when the people you’re deferring to are such towering figures!
It’s harder (and more intimidating) to venture out on your own and express your own thoughts. But
how do you think those wise and true quotes from those towering figures were created in the first place?
Your own experiences have value. You have accumulated your own wisdom too. Stake your claim. Put
something down for the ages—in words and also in example.