Key ideas 

1. When you practice philosophy, people will criticize you because you are not perfect. 
2. What they don’t know is some progress is better than no progress at all. 

Challenges to one’s way of life 

So, if any one of the dogs who yelp at philosophy says, as they usually do: 

• Why do you talk so much more boldly than you live? 
• Why do you check your words when you are with your superiors and consider money as a necessary resource? 
• Why are you disturbed when you incur losses and weep when you hear that your wife or friend is dead? 
• Why do you pay attention to common gossip and feel annoyed at slanderous gossip? 
• Why is your property kept more elaborately than is naturally necessary? 
• Why don’t you eat the way your precepts tell you to? 
• Why is your furniture better looking than it needs to be? 
• Why do you drink the vintage wine? 
• Why are your grounds laid out? 
• Why do you plant trees that only provide shade? 
• Why does your spouse’s jewelry cost more than a rich person’s house? 
• Why do your children wear expensive clothes to school? 
• Why is it an art to wait upon you at the table? 
• Why is your silver plate skillfully laid out and needs a supervisor to carve the food? 

And then questions like these. 

• Why do you own properties abroad? 
• Why do you own properties you don’t even know you do? 
• Don’t you think it is a shame you can’t recognize people who work for you? You must be too neglectful if there are only a few, and too extravagant if there are too many for you to remember. 

I will add to this list of accusations myself later. I will bring more accusations against myself than you can think of. But, for now, let me answer you this way. 

Some progress is better than none at all 

“I am not a wise man. I will not be one because of your spite. So, don’t expect me to be on par with the best of people, but just better than the worst. I am satisfied if every day I reduce my vices and correct my faults. I am not perfect and never will be. I use medicines to relieve the symptoms of what ails me rather than effect a cure. I am happy if it comes less frequently and is not so painful. Compared to your lame legs, I’m a racer.” 

I say this not to defend myself—I am full of vices of every kind—but on behalf of others who have made some progress in virtue. 

Think about this 

I am satisfied if every day I reduce my vices and correct my faults. I am not perfect and never will be. I use medicines to relieve the symptoms of what ails me rather than effect a cure. I am happy if it comes less frequently and is not so painful. Compared to your lame legs, I’m a racer. 

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In the SEVENTEENTH chapter of his discourse On The Happy Life, Seneca tells us that to be happy we should stop pursuing pleasure, and instead pursue virtue. 

This is an excerpt from Stoic Happiness, a plain English version of Seneca’s On the Happy Life, published by The Stoic Gym. 

https://amzn.to/2I0mbVW 

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