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Full Idea
For those who follow nature everything is easy and straightforward, whereas for those who fight against her life is just like rowing against the stream.
Gist of Idea
Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream
Source
Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 102)
Book Ref
Seneca: 'Letters from a Stoic (Selections)', ed/tr. Campbell,Robin [Penguin 1969], p.226
A Reaction
A classic statement of the well-known stoic slogan, but expressed with Seneca's characteristic elegance. There is always a slight hidden of dubious fatalism in the slogan. 'Rage, rage, against the dying of the light!' - Dylan Thomas.
| 6013 | Panaetius said we should live according to our natural starting-points [Panaetius, by Asmis] |
| 13318 | Nature doesn't give us virtue; we must unremittingly pursue it, as a training and an art [Seneca] |
| 13324 | Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream [Seneca] |
| 3069 | The art of life is more like the wrestler's than the dancer's [Aurelius] |
| 4856 | To live according to reason is to live according to the laws of human nature [Spinoza] |
| 4493 | Be natural! But how, if one happens to be "unnatural"? [Nietzsche] |
| 4494 | Not "return to nature", for there has never yet been a natural humanity [Nietzsche] |
| 4498 | 'Love your enemy' is unnatural, for the natural law says 'love your neighbour and hate your enemy' [Nietzsche] |