While rummaging around in my memories of the “good ol’ times”¹, I remembered a speech I held some time ago. We had been tasked by our English teacher to write and perform a speech about literally anything and I’d just begun reading “The Tao Of Seneca” by Tim Ferriss² a short while before that. So I wrote a speech about Seneca.

After rereading it, I thought it’d be cool to upload it here. To make sure I don’t lose it, for one, but also because this blog is a space for my writing, so why shouldn’t I put some of my old writing on here as well? (And maybe I also want to remind myself that I didn’t always struggle so much to assemble these thoughts and feelings in my head into sentences that feel like more than just a heap of dead letters to me.)

Imagine a fine spring morning in the year of ‘22, the kind that makes you feel like everything is just the way it has to be. The kind that makes you take a deep breath and smile at the rising sun with all the peace and tranquillity humanly possible. Imagine a classroom full of laughter and good humour, all my old classmates taking their accustomed place in the classroom. There is one exception, though. One student, a tall young man, just a few weeks short of nineteen, makes his way to the lectern, clutching his notes nervously, his fingers shaking ever so slightly. And then, the bell rings³ …

Hello and good morning to all of you.

When we were told that we would write and hold a speech I was very unsure about what mine should be on. But when I browsed my own mind for something to the likes of inspiration, my thoughts suddenly snapped to Seneca, a roman philosopher who lived over two thousand years ago. I discarded the thought pretty quickly, because I was quite sure that even if I were skilled enough to do this topic justice, I’d definitely not be able to do that in three to five minutes. But for lack of a better idea, I’ll try anyway.

So, Seneca, who is that guy? Well, as I already mentioned, he was a philosopher of ancient rome and he was also tutor to emperor Nero. And if we think about philosophers, usually an image of an old man with a long white beard and an ancient book in his hands springs to our minds. But Seneca wasn’t simply a thinker, he was a doer, too. For him, his philosophy, stoicism, wasn’t just the study of existential questions, not a science of mere thinking, not something to do half an hour per day sitting in an armchair. For him, philosophy was something to take with you all day, something that must be studied and acted out for it to reach perfection. For him it was the guide of life.

And Seneca also very much liked to give this guidance to others, for, as he himself once said: “I am glad to learn, in order that I may teach. Nothing will ever please me, no matter how excellent or beneficial, if I must retain the knowledge of it to myself.” Because of that, he often sent letters to a student and friend of his, Lucilius. Well, there is no real evidence that anyone of this name existed in Seneca’s life and it might even be that those letters were never sent to anyone and were written merely for the lack of someone real to send instructive letters to. But, I think, if that were the case, it would demonstrate Seneca’s love for passing on knowledge even more. Anyway, one of these letters, which I’m going to tell you about now, shows beautifully, how practical Seneca was and how much he liked teaching his ideas to Lucilius.

In this letter, which is the third of his collection, by the way, if you want to read the whole of it later, he tells Lucilius about true and false friendship. He does this, because Lucilius seems to have sent him some confidential information in a letter trough the hand of a “friend”, as he calls him, but then warned Seneca not to discuss any of the contents of that letter with said “friend”. And Seneca does not like this, at all. He tells Lucilius: “If you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means.” And later, he also states: “When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment.” Pretty commanding, right? Well, yes, but I personally think that this directness is part of why Seneca has maintained such an actuality even into modern days. He doesn’t hide himself behind his words, doesn’t throw around empty phrases all day. Instead, he makes his opinion clear and opens up his mind for us to see, so that we might pluck some thought or idea from it to carry with us.

So, if you like to think about things and find the time, read a letter or two, I’m sure you’ll find something of interest in there.

Now; I want to end with a quote from a modern thinker whom I know pretty well, but who is still quite unsure about his ideas and shall therefore not be named here. It goes as follows:

I love words. Not just because they are words, not just because of their legacy, not just because they are waves which carry information to our ears … I love them because of the ideas we can build from them. That is why I am no linguist, but a philosopher.

Thank you very much for your attention.