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Marcus Aurelius vs Seneca the Younger on Virtue

Marcus Aurelius and Seneca are the two great Latin Stoic moralists, and they share the doctrine that virtue alone is the good and that external goods are indifferent. Their tone differs sharply: Seneca writes as a courtier addressing friends with worldly entanglements, drawing on rhetoric and consolation, while Marcus writes as an emperor addressing himself in the austere voice of self-correction. The two together represent Stoic virtue ethics in its most influential Roman forms.

About this topic

Virtue has been a central category of ethics since the Greeks treated it as the excellence proper to a human being. Plato analyzed the cardinal virtues, Aristotle developed virtue ethics as habituated dispositions of character, and Confucian and Buddhist traditions parallel this concern with cultivated moral excellence. Medieval thinkers added the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity to the classical inheritance. The modern revival of virtue ethics in the twentieth century returned attention to character and practical wisdom as the ground of moral life.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Marcus Aurelius vs Seneca the Younger comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Virtue quotes hub.

Representative quotes on virtue

Marcus Aurelius on virtue

  • “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

    Μηκέθ᾽ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον. | X, 16

  • “If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

    XII, 17

  • “When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. (Hays translation)”

    Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ: συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ: πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.

  • “Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. II, 1”

    Ἕωθεν προλέγειν ἑαυτῷ: συντεύξομαι περιέργῳ, ἀχαρίστῳ, ὑβριστῇ, δολερῷ, βασκάνῳ, ἀκοινωνήτῳ: πάντα ταῦτα συμβέβηκεν ἐκείνοις παρὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ κακῶν.

  • Attributed to Marcus Aurelius:

    “Begin each day by telling yourself: today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness — all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil.”

All 6 Marcus Aurelius quotes on virtue →

Seneca the Younger on virtue

  • “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

    Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est.

  • “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

    Aliquando enim et vivere fortiter facere est

  • “Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue ; good men obey the bad , might is right and fear oppresses law . lines 251-253; ( Amphitryon )”

    rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.

  • “Alternate translation: Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue. (translator unknown)”

    rursus prosperum ac felix scelus virtus vocatur; sontibus parent boni, ius est in armis, opprimit leges timor.

  • Attributed to Seneca the Younger:

    “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”

All 7 Seneca the Younger quotes on virtue →

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