- The Stoic Ledger
- Posts
- January 6
January 6
Day 6/365: Seneca on valuing our possessions
Welcome to The Stoic Ledger, a daily money meditation from one of the stoic sages.
6/365: Seneca on valuing our possessions
“Fix a limit which you will not even desire to pass, should you have the power. At last, then, away with all these treacherous goods! They look better for those who hope for them than to those who have attained them. If there were anything substantial in them, they would sooner or later satisfy you; as it is, they merely rouse the drinkers’ thirst.” – Seneca
Have you ever found yourself salivating to acquire a possession, only to see days, weeks, months later that it’s lost all luster?
The object is the same, the only change is the relationship you have with it.
Take a brief inventory of what you own and reflect back to time before you had these items. The bank balance you desperately wanted. The income from the job promotion. The new car. We wanted them with a fiery enthusiasm, and now that we have them, we take them for granted; they’ve become dull to us.
With each acquisition, we satisfy one craving and set sights on the next.
Seneca implores us to remember that material goods don’t bring happiness. While there’s nothing inherently problematic with owning these goods, there is with the shallow lust for more and more and more.
Things look great until you have them, then they merely appear average.
Reply