Seneca Quote on Virtue: The Only Good

Quote

"Virtue is the only good: the one thing that is in our power, the one possession that cannot be taken, and the one wealth that makes the person rich whatever fortune brings." — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, Letters 66 and 71 (c. 62 CE)

Author

Seneca (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) was the most important Stoic philosopher of the Roman world and the author of the Letters to Lucilius, his masterpiece of practical ethics.

Source

The quotation gathers the passages on virtue from Letters 66 and 71 of the Letters to Lucilius. The translation follows Margaret Graver and A.A. Long's Chicago edition (2015).

Context

The teaching belongs to the foundation of the Stoic ethics, inherited from Zeno of Citium and the founders: only virtue is good, only vice is evil, and everything else is indifferent. Seneca develops the doctrine throughout the letters: the virtue is the perfection of the reason, the only thing that is in our power, and the only possession that cannot be taken. The teaching grounds the whole of the Stoic practice — the disciplines of desire, action, and assent are the training of the virtue.

Meaning

The quotation states the Stoic foundation with complete clarity. "Virtue is the only good" — the doctrine: the good is the virtue — the perfection of the reason, the wisdom, the justice, the courage, the temperance — and the other things are indifferents. "The one thing that is in our power" — the possession: the virtue is the one thing that is in our power — the one thing that fortune cannot take, because it is the state of the soul. "The one possession that cannot be taken" — the security: the virtue cannot be taken, because it is not external — the loss of the wealth, the health, the reputation does not touch it. "The one wealth that makes the person rich whatever fortune brings" — the completion: the person who possesses the virtue is rich whatever fortune brings — the rich in the only sense that matters. The quotation is the foundation of the Stoic wisdom tradition, and it grounds the whole of the Stoic ethics.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic doctrine of virtue and the philosophy of the good life. Its account of the virtue as the only good connects to the doctrine of the indifferents and to the wider wisdom tradition's teaching on the secure possession. The teaching is among the foundations of the Stoic wisdom tradition.