Living according to nature or opinion — Seneca

If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.

Source: Letters to Lucilius, 16.7, trans. Richard Gummere
Written: c. AD 62–65

About this quotation

Here Seneca contrasts what a person actually needs with what other people’s opinions make them want. Natural needs are limited and easily met; wants shaped by opinion have no limit, so they can never be satisfied. The wording is Richard Gummere’s 1917 Loeb translation, which is in the public domain.

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