SPACEDK · DAILY CLASSICS · 07:00 CST
The Daily Classics Library
At 7:00 every morning in Beijing, 500 complete sayings, verses, reflections, or stories are selected from edition- and rights-verified books, then read again in historical and contemporary context.
Verification rule: Unsourced internet quotations are excluded. Every item records its work, authorship or traditional attribution, translator, locator, source revision, and rights status. “Complete” means a self-contained saying, verse, reflection, or story—not copying an entire protected modern book.
Pensées
Pensées · Section VII · 453
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 281, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section VII · fragment 453,” can mean this: Fairness is not always giving everyone the same thing. It means taking each person seriously.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section VII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
On a fondé et tiré de la concupiscence des règles admirables de police, de morale et de justice ; mais dans le fond, ce vilain fond de l’homme, ce figmentum malum, n’est que couvert : il n’est pas ôté.
論語
述而第七 · 七之二七
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 282, “論語 · 述而第七 · 七之二七 · 七之二七,” can mean this: New learning becomes stronger when we practise it again.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Confucius lived amid political fragmentation and changing ritual order in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Analects was compiled over time by disciples and later circles, not recorded as a verbatim transcript. This item is fixed to a specific Wikisource revision.
- Period
- 春秋末至战国编集 / late Spring and Autumn to Warring States compilation
- Region
- 中国 / China
- Work date
- 约公元前5—3世纪逐步编集
- Edition
- 中文维基文库《論語》述而第七
Check the complete text with an adult
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子曰：「蓋有不知而作之者，我無是也。多聞，擇其善者而從之，多見而識之，知之次也。」
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · VI:80
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 283, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · VI:80 · VI:80,” can mean this: Everyone meets hard choices. We can pause before acting.
Try this: After a task, check whether it truly helped someone.
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Well-makers lead the water (wherever they like); fletchers bend the arrow; carpenters bend a log of wood; wise people fashion themselves.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · CX. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §16
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 284, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……NECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §16,” can mean this: Life and time are precious. Care for yourself and the people around you.
Try this: If something is hard today, say, “Please help me.”
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber XIX
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[16] Vidistine quam intra paucas horas ille ordo quamvis lentus dispositusque transierit? Hoc totam vitam nostram occupabit quod totum diem occupare non potuit? Accessit illud quoque: tam supervacuae mihi visae sunt habentibus quam fuerunt spectantibus.
Meditations
Meditations · Book 3, passage 9
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 285, “Meditations · Meditations · ……ok 3, passage 9 · book-3-p-9,” can mean this: Be honest with friends. If someone does not understand you, do not rush to anger.
Try this: If you disagree, use calm words to explain why.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Reverence the faculty which produces opinion. On this faculty it entirely depends whether there shall exist in thy ruling part any opinion inconsistent with nature and the constitution of the rational animal. And this faculty promises freedom from hasty judgement, and friendship towards men, and obedience to the gods.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XII · 767
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 286, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XII · fragment 767,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
De tout ce qui est sur la terre, il ne prend part qu’aux déplaisirs, non aux plaisirs. Il aime ses proches ; mais sa charité ne se renferme pas dans ces bornes, et se répand sur ses ennemis, et puis sur ceux de Dieu.
Aesop’s Fables
The Boy and the Filberts
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 287, “Aesop’s Fables · The Boy and……s · the-boy-and-the-filberts,” can mean this: Wanting more is normal, and we can also learn what is enough.
Try this: If you disagree, use calm words to explain why.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Aesopic corpus is a long, changing fable tradition, not a set of individually verifiable utterances by one sixth-century BCE author. Each complete item here is fixed to V. S. Vernon Jones’s 1912 English edition.
- Period
- Ancient Greek tradition; 1912 English edition
- Region
- Ancient Mediterranean / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Traditional material associated with the 6th century BCE; translation published 1912
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of the 1912 V. S. Vernon Jones translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
A Boy put his hand into a jar of Filberts, and grasped as many as his fist could possibly hold. But when he tried to pull it out again, he found he couldn’t do so, for the neck of the jar was too small to allow of the passage of so large a handful. Unwilling to lose his nuts but unable to withdraw his hand, he burst into tears. A bystander, who saw where the trouble lay, said to him, “Come, my boy, don’t be so greedy: be content with half the amount, and you’ll be able to get your hand out without difficulty.” Do not attempt too much at once.
Pensées
Pensées · Section IV · 261
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 288, “Pensées · Pensées · Section …… · Section IV · fragment 261,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: If something is hard today, say, “Please help me.”
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section IV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Ceux qui n’aiment pas la vérité prennent le prétexte de la contestation en la multitude de ceux qui la nient ; et ainsi leur erreur ne vient que de ce qu’ils n’aiment pas la vérité ou la charité, et ainsi ils ne s’en sont pas excusés.
Meditations
Meditations · Book 6, passage 20
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 289, “Meditations · Meditations · …… 6, passage 20 · book-6-p-20,” can mean this: Life and time are precious. Care for yourself and the people around you.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Marcus Aurelius governed in the second century CE amid frontier wars, imperial administration, and the Antonine plague. The Meditations are private Greek exercises; the exact date and place of individual notes are often uncertain. This edition uses George Long’s 1862 translation.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 2nd century CE; 1862 English translation
- Region
- Roman Empire / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Original notes c. 170s CE; translation first published 1862
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of George Long’s translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
In the gymnastic exercises suppose that a man has torn thee with his nails, and by dashing against thy head has inflicted a wound. Well, we neither show any signs of vexation, nor are we offended, nor do we suspect him afterwards as a treacherous fellow; and yet we are on our guard against him, not however as an enemy, nor yet with suspicion, but we quietly get out of his way. Something like this let thy behaviour be in all the other parts of life; let us overlook many things in those who are like antagonists in the gymnasium. For it is in our power, as I said, to get out of the way, and to have no suspicion nor hatred.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · LXVI. §10
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 290, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu…… §10 · Liber VII · LXVI. §10,” can mean this: Real effort makes something better. It is not only looking busy.
Try this: Tell a trusted adult one thing you learned today.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber VII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[10] Bonum omne in easdem cadit leges: iuncta est privata et publica utilitas, tam mehercules quam inseparabile est laudandum petendumque. Ergo virtutes inter se pares sunt et opera virtutis et omnes homines quibus illae contigere.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · XCII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §8
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 291, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……ENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §8,” can mean this: Life and time are precious. Care for yourself and the people around you.
Try this: If something is hard today, say, “Please help me.”
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber XIV – XV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[8] Inrationalis pars animi duas habet partes, alteram animosam, ambitiosam, inpotentem, positam in adfectionibus, alteram humilem, languidam, voluptatibus deditam: illam effrenatam, meliorem tamen, certe fortiorem ac digniorem viro, reliquerunt, hanc necessariam beatae vitae putaverunt, enervem et abiectam.
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · IX:121
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 292, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · IX:121 · IX:121,” can mean this: Knowing what is right matters, and doing it matters too.
Try this: After a task, check whether it truly helped someone.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the fool becomes full of evil, even if he gather it little by little.
Dhammapada
Dhammapada · XXIII:322
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 293, “Dhammapada · Dhammapada · XX……pada · XXIII:322 · XXIII:322,” can mean this: Knowing what is right matters, and doing it matters too.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Dhammapada is an anthology of Pali Buddhist verses shaped by long transmission and compilation, so a verifiable occasion cannot be assigned to each verse. This source uses Max Müller’s 1881 translation and keeps its nineteenth-century philological vocabulary visible.
- Period
- Ancient Indian Buddhist tradition; 1881 English translation
- Region
- South Asia / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Ancient compilation of uncertain date; translation published 1881
- Edition
- Dhammapada, translated by F. Max Müller, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Mules are good, if tamed, and noble Sindhu horses, and elephants with large tusks; but he who tames himself is better still.
Aesop’s Fables
The Cage-Bird and the Bat
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 294, “Aesop’s Fables · The Cage-Bi…… · the-cage-bird-and-the-bat,” can mean this: Knowing what is right matters, and doing it matters too.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
The Aesopic corpus is a long, changing fable tradition, not a set of individually verifiable utterances by one sixth-century BCE author. Each complete item here is fixed to V. S. Vernon Jones’s 1912 English edition.
- Period
- Ancient Greek tradition; 1912 English edition
- Region
- Ancient Mediterranean / United Kingdom edition
- Work date
- Traditional material associated with the 6th century BCE; translation published 1912
- Edition
- Standard Ebooks edition of the 1912 V. S. Vernon Jones translation
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
A Singing-bird was confined in a cage which hung outside a window, and had a way of singing at night when all other birds were asleep. One night a Bat came and clung to the bars of the cage, and asked the Bird why she was silent by day and sang only at night. “I have a very good reason for doing so,” said the Bird: “it was once when I was singing in the daytime that a fowler was attracted by my voice, and set his nets for me and caught me. Since then I have never sung except by night.” But the Bat replied, “It is no use your doing that now when you are a prisoner: if only you had done so before you were caught, you might still have been free.” Precautions are useless after the event.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIII · 834
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 295, “Pensées · Pensées · Section …… Section XIII · fragment 834,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Jeh., vi, 26 : Non quia vidistis signa, sed quia saturati estis. Ceux qui suivent Jésus-Christ à cause de ses miracles honorent sa puissance dans tous les miracles qu’elle produit ; mais ceux qui, en faisant profession de le suivre pour ses miracles, ne le suivent en effet que parce qu’il les console et les rassasie des biens du monde, ils déshonorent ses miracles, quand ils sont contraires à leurs commodités, Jeh., ix : Non est hic homo a Deo, qui sabbatum non custodit. Alii : Quomodo potest homo peccator hæc signa facere ? Lequel est le plus clair ? Cette maison n’est pas de Dieu ; car on n’y croit pas que les cinq propositions soient dans Jansénius. Les autres : Cette maison est de Dieu ; car il y fait d’étranges miracles. Lequel est le plus clair ? Tu quid dicis ? Dico quia propheta est. Nisi esset hic a Deo, non poterat facere quidquam.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XII · 770
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 296, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XII · fragment 770,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Today, listen until another person finishes, then answer.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XII
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Après que bien des gens sont venus devant, il est venu enfin Jésus-Christ dire : Me voici, et voici le temps. Ce que les prophètes ont dit devoir avenir dans la suite des temps, je vous dis que mes apôtres le vont faire. Les Juifs vont être rebutés, Jérusalem sera bientôt détruite ; et les païens vont entrer dans la connaissance de Dieu. Mes apôtres le vont faire après que vous aurez tué l’héritier de la vigne. Et puis les apôtres ont dit aux Juifs : Vous allez être maudits (Celsus s’en moquait) ; et aux païens : Vous allez entrer dans la connaissance de Dieu. Et cela arrive alors.
Pensées
Pensées · Section XIV · 942
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 297, “Pensées · Pensées · Section ……· Section XIV · fragment 942,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Today, listen until another person finishes, then answer.
Important reminder: Being brave does not mean taking unsafe risks. Leave danger and find a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section XIV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
Or, la probabilité est nécessaire pour les antres maximes, comme pour celle de Lamy et [du] calomniateur. A fructibus eorum : jugez de leur foi par leur morale. La probabilité est peu sans les moyens corrompus, et les moyens ne sont rien sans la probabilité. Il y a du plaisir d’avoir assurance de pouvoir bien faire et de savoir bien faire ; la grâce : scire et posse et la probabilité le donnent, car on peut rendre compte à Dieu en assurance sur leurs auteurs.
Pensées
Pensées · Section II-2 · 146
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 298, “Pensées · Pensées · Section …… Section II-2 · fragment 146,” can mean this: The first thought in your mind may be wrong. Look for clues and think again.
Try this: Observe first and guess second. Change your mind when clues change.
Important reminder: This is one reading, not a rule that is always right. Tell a trusted adult about danger, bullying, or pain.
For adults: historical and edition context
Pascal left these unfinished fragments amid seventeenth-century French scientific development, religious controversy, and illness, probably for a projected Christian apology. Modern grouping and numbering reflect Brunschvicg’s editorial decisions rather than a finished authorial order. Analysis distinguishes religious argument, mathematics, historical evidence, and personal experience.
- Period
- 17th-century France; early modern science and religious controversy
- Region
- France
- Work date
- Fragments written mainly c. 1657–1662; Brunschvicg edition published 1897–1925
- Edition
- Léon Brunschvicg edition, Section II-2
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
L’homme est visiblement fait pour penser ; c’est toute sa dignité ; et tout son mérite et tout son devoir est de penser comme il faut. Or l’ordre de la pensée est de commencer par soi, et par son auteur et sa fin. Or à quoi pense le monde ? jamais à cela ; mais à danser, à jouer du luth, à chanter, à faire des vers, à courir la bague, etc., à se battre, à se faire roi, sans penser à ce que c’est qu’être roi, et qu’être homme.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · XCIV. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §72
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 299, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……NECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §72,” can mean this: Everyone meets hard choices. We can pause before acting.
Try this: Give gentle care to a person, animal, or plant today.
Important reminder: Do not judge a person from one sentence. Check what happened and think with a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber XIV – XV
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[72] Itaque si in medio urbium fremitu conlocati sumus, stet ad latus monitor et contra laudatores ingentium patrimoniorum laudet parvo divitem et usu opes metientem. Contra illos qui gratiam ac potentiam attollunt otium ipse suspiciat traditum litteris et animum ab externis ad sua reversum.
Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Seneca · XVIII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §14
Simple guide for children under seven
What it means: Today’s item 300, “Epistulae morales ad Luciliu……NECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM §14,” can mean this: When angry, pause first. Let your body settle, then explain why.
Try this: Today, listen until another person finishes, then answer.
Important reminder: Old books can reflect old limits. A child does not need to follow every old rule; ask a trusted adult.
For adults: historical and edition context
Seneca’s letters to Lucilius are usually dated to about 62–65 CE, late in Nero’s reign. They combine counsel with deliberate literary composition. Claims about freedom, wealth, and death must be read alongside Roman political danger, hierarchy, and slavery. This item preserves the original Latin at a fixed Wikisource revision.
- Period
- Roman Empire, 1st century CE
- Region
- Roman Empire
- Work date
- Commonly dated to Seneca’s final years, c. 62–65 CE
- Edition
- Latin Wikisource, Liber II
Check the complete text with an adult
Open the edition-verified text
[14] Sed iam incipiamus epistulam complicare. 'Prius' inquis 'redde quod debes.' Delegabo te ad Epicurum, ab illo fiet numeratio: 'immodica ira gignit insaniam'. Hoc quam verum sit necesse est scias, cum habueris et servum et inimicum.