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Full Idea
To want to know more than is sufficient is a form of intemperance.
Gist of Idea
Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance
Source
Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 088)
Book Ref
Seneca: 'Letters from a Stoic (Selections)', ed/tr. Campbell,Robin [Penguin 1969], p.159
A Reaction
This comes as a bit of a surprise, given the high value that philosophers place on knowledge. I'm reminded of Auberon Waugh's criticism of the Scots as a 'wildly over-educated people'. I think the problem is what you could have been doing instead.
| 131 | If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse [Plato] |
| 140 | Self-indulgent desire makes friendship impossible, because it makes a person incapable of co-operation [Plato] |
| 254 | Excessive laughter and tears must be avoided [Plato] |
| 23908 | If someone just looks at or listens to beautiful things, they would not be thought intemperate [Aristotle] |
| 2813 | It is quite possible to live a moderate life and yet be miserable [Aristotle] |
| 13312 | Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance [Seneca] |
| 13308 | It's no good winning lots of fights, if you are then conquered by your own temper [Seneca] |
| 13552 | Anger is an extreme vice, threatening sanity, and gripping whole states [Seneca] |
| 13553 | Anger is a vice which afflicts good men as well as bad [Seneca] |
| 22399 | Temperance prevents our passions from acting against reason [Aquinas] |
| 22403 | Temperance is not a virtue if it results from timidity or excessive puritanism [Foot] |