Nº 0: Seneca - On Quotations
Pre-requisites:
- Seneca closes almost all his previous letters with a quotation, many of which are from Epicurus, founder of the Epicurean School of philosophy, and commonly seen as holding antithetical beliefs to the Stoic School of philosophy Seneca holds to.
- Seneca and Lucilius are discussing philosophical schools and works in this letter
To summarise the previous parts of this letter, Seneca's "correspondent", Lucilius, is requesting that Seneca begins closing his letters with sayings from their own school. Seneca replies that the fathers of their school did not busy themselves with "flowery bits of speech", and that they have no "eye-catchers", but, rather, sayings can be taken from anywhere in the text the reader wishes, as unlike the writings of Epicurus, the stoic texts are not on the whole of an average quality, with particularly insightful maxims and aphorisms scattered throughout, but are smooth and even, the high quality maintained from start to finish.
Seneca continues:
“For this reason, you must give up hope that you will ever be able to take just a quick sampling from the works of the greatest men. You must read them as wholes, come to grips with them as wholes. The subject matter is treated along the lines that are proper to it, and an intellectual product is devised from which nothing can be removed without a collapse. Still, I have no objection to your studying the individual limbs, provided you retain the actual person. A beautiful woman is not the one whose ankle or shoulder is praised but the one whose overall appearance steals our admiration away from the individual parts.”
Quotations can contain pearls of wisdom, but, if these excerpts are taken from a text, that text should be read and understood as a whole, with the knowledge that arguments and ideas have been constructed with time over multiple passages. But Seneca does not object to Lucilius studying the isolated quotes, providing he retains the image of the whole picture; the person, and the entirety of their ideas, which should transcend the very words that are being used to comunicate them. As Montaigne said: "I would have the subject predominate and so fill the imagination of him who listens that he shall have no remembrance of the words" (Bk. I, Ess. XXVI).
Moving on:
“I’m sure these do a great deal for beginners and for listeners from outside the school. For individual sayings take hold more easily when they are isolated and rounded off like bits of verse. That is why we give children proverbs to memorize, and what the Greeks call “Chreiai”: they are what a child’s mind is able to encompass, not yet having room for anything larger.”
A man quotes a famous literary figure in conversation and his unfamiliar guests are installed with a sense of wonder and marvel at the former's culture and learning. But most likely the man has simply memorized the quote, and knows nothing other than the little nugget of wisdom he rattled off at a timely moment. He is unfamiliar with the work from which it is taken, never-mind the very context in which it is used; the author could very well have been using the quotation as a demonstration of why they take the opposite view, or hold to another belief.
Yet quotes are seemingly more and more popular: websites teem with lists like "Top 10 quotes", quotes promising "Motivation" and "Inspiration". Why? Seneca says it himself, these people are children who cannot absorb anything deeper than a few words or a sentence, and never read works in their entirety. They cannot fathom that the passage from which the shining quote is taken, yet alone the whole work, could contain equally insightful, more insightful, sentiments, than the small excerpt so proudly displayed along with it's author's name.
“It is shameful, though, when a man who is making definite progress seizes on flowery bits or props himself up with a handful of commonplaces he has memorized. Let him stand on his own feet! Let him say these things for himself, not recall what he has memorized. For shame, that an old person, or one nearly old, should get his wisdom from a textbook! “This is what Zeno said”: what do you say? “Cleanthes said this”: what do you? How long will you march to another’s command? Take charge: say something memorable on your own account; bring forth something from your own store.”
Holding completely to an ideology is a dangerous thing. Seneca is not advocating ignorance from great author's and their texts, but is encouraging the chewing and mixing of these ideas with your own; examine them yourself, see how they fit with your existing beliefs; do not simply swallow them whole without contributing something of your own.
“So I feel that all those people who are never authors but always interpreters, concealing themselves in the shadow of another, have nothing noble in them, for they have never dared to put into action what they have been so long in learning. They have trained their memories on other people’s words; but remembering is one thing, knowing is something else. Remembering is keeping track of something you have committed to memory; knowing, by contrast, is making all those things on your own, not having to depend on a model or to keep looking to your teacher for instructions. “Zeno said this, and Cleanthes said that.” Let there be some distance between you and the book! How long will you be a pupil? Now, be a teacher as well. Why should I listen to things that I can read? “It makes a big difference when things are spoken aloud”, he says. Not when the speaker is only borrowing someone else’s words, a a copyist might do!”
A big reason I enjoy Seneca is because he and I seem to have formed our views from the same stock. I do not need to read Seneca over and over to remind myself of his wisdom because I already have it, and practice it, myself. You should not read an author and their words and model your life exactly on that person, you should see past the words, to the Truth that they are taken from; examine their views, and see how they fit with your own: accept sound advice and reject nonsensical views piecemeal. Do not outright accept or reject a whole ideology.
Again, some wisdom from Montaigne: "Let him make him sift every thing, and lodge nothing in his brain on authority merely and on trust; let not Aristotle's principles be his principles, any more than those of the Stoics or Epicureans; let this diversity of opinions be put before him: he will choose if he can; if not, he will remain in doubt. None but a fool is sure and determined." (Ibid.) He then quotes Dante: "For doubt no less than knowledge, pleases me." (Inferno, XI. 93).
“And there is another issue concerning these people who never take charge of their own lives: they begin by following their leaders on subjects where everyone else has declared independence; then they follow them in matters that are still subject to investigation. Nothing will ever be found out if we rest content with what has been found out already! Anyway, followers never even look for anything.”
No comment necessary.
“How about it then? Will I not walk in the footsteps of my predecessors? I will indeed use the ancient road—but if I find another route that is more direct and has fewer ups and downs, I will stake out that one. Those who advanced these doctrines before us are not our masters but our guides. The truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken over. Much is left also for those yet to come.”
Again, old authors, their works, and above all their ideas, are not only incredibly useful and insightful but, in my opinion at least, requisite. But, in some cases, this does not mean that there is no room for improvement.
Many people may be put off from reading ancient works, or even ones from a few hundred years ago, seeing an irrelevance; the people having no commonality to our way of life, living off the land and wearing simple clothing, what could they possible have to teach us? The Truth. Their Wisdom. And there is indeed wisdom, but whilst you cannot improve upon truth, their views and sentiments which are drawn from the Truth, can, and should be examined, and adapted, not taken whole, but piecemeal.
I think the reasons for beginning this series with the above "Quotation" are clear. But there are some additional points which should be made. As I said at the top of the post, a lot of the above discussion applies to philosophical works, and non-fiction as a whole. Fictional works which are not communicating any grand philosophical ideas, can be more easily excerpted with little loss versus non-fiction, as authors of the former are inherently writing in a more literary style, and can therefore use more "flowery speech" &c. at their pleasure.
So I would encourage you to seek out and read works in their entirety; do not content yourself with the little morsels of wisdom you may find splattered around the internet, or heard in person, especially if they are philosophical in sentiment, in which case, seek the Truth from which they came.
I close as Seneca closes each and every Letter:
“Farewell”
