Seneca on how the company you keep changes you. From Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, about 62 to 65 AD.
One day Seneca dropped in at the arena around noon. He hoped for something light: jokes, fun, a rest for the eyes from the morning’s bloodshed.
He found the opposite. At the lunch break, condemned criminals were sent in without armor to fight one another. Each winner was kept to face the next man. Every fight ended in death.
In Letter 7, Seneca told Lucilius that crowds were the thing to avoid. He had stopped at the arena at noon, expecting light fun, and found condemned men forced to kill each other while the crowd cheered. From the games, he admitted, he came home greedier and crueler. Choose people who make you better, he wrote, and people you can help.
The company you keep comes home with you. Practical advice: notice how you feel after time with each group, and spend more evenings with the ones who leave you kinder.
Well established · checked against 4 sourcesAfter each get-together this week, note whether you came home better or worse.
“My friends complain and gossip a lot, and I’m starting to sound like them. How do I change that?”
The Crowd Comes Home With You and the other 11 ideas of Letters from a Stoic, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
