Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 4.22 ¶2 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 4.22 ¶2
Indeed, nature would have been most unjust had she rendered this great blessing miserable, uncertain, and fruitless. But consider this point, whether you would make your way to that virtue, to which it is generally safe and easy to attain, even though the path lay over rocks and precipices, and were beset with fierce beasts and venomous serpents. A virtue is none the less to be desired for its own sake, because it has some adventitious profit connected with it: indeed, in most cases the noblest virtues are accompanied by many extraneous advantages, but it is the virtues that lead the way, and these merely follow in their train.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 4.22 ¶2, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/4.22.2
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA virtue stays worth pursuing for its own sake even if it brings side benefits, and you would pursue it even if the road led over cliffs and past dangerous animals. Virtue leads, and any advantages merely follow behind it.
Older wording
- “adventitious”
- — arriving by chance, secondary
- “extraneous”
- — outside, incidental
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Gratitude
- Courage
- Resilience and endurance
- An ethical dilemma
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