Key Arguments

• He situates himself 'with a babel of noise going on all about me' above a public bathhouse and lists in detail the various loud, chaotic sounds, yet claims they do not affect his mind.
• He insists he notices the 'roar of noise' no more than the sound of waves or a waterfall, comparing himself favorably to a people on the Nile who 'moved their capital solely because they could not stand the thundering of a cataract'.
• He distinguishes 'noise' from 'voices', arguing that general noise merely fills the ears whereas voices capture attention, so distraction depends on where the mind lets its attention go.
• He says he has so steeled himself that he can 'even put up with a coxswain’s strident tones', explicitly crediting deliberate mental training: 'For I force my mind to become self-absorbed and not let outside things distract it.'
• He concludes that one can endure any external uproar if the inner state is ordered: 'There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other.'
• He argues that external silence is pointless if the emotions are disturbed: 'For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil?'

Source Quotes

I for the life of me see that quiet is as necessary to a person who has shut himself away to do some studying as it is usually thought to be. Here am I with a babel of noise going on all about me.

I for the life of me see that quiet is as necessary to a person who has shut himself away to do some studying as it is usually thought to be. Here am I with a babel of noise going on all about me. I have lodgings right over a public bathhouse. Now imagine to yourself every kind of sound that can make one weary of one’s years.

‘You must be made of iron,’ you may say, ‘or else hard of hearing if your mind is unaffected by all this babel of discordant noises around you, when continual “good morning” greetings were enough to finish off the Stoic Chrysippus!’ But I swear I no more notice all this roar of noise than I do the sound of waves or falling water – even if I am here told the story of a people on the Nile who moved their capital solely because they could not stand the thundering of a cataract! Voices, I think, are more inclined to distract one than general noise; noise merely fills one’s ears, battering away at them while voices actually catch one’s attention.

But I swear I no more notice all this roar of noise than I do the sound of waves or falling water – even if I am here told the story of a people on the Nile who moved their capital solely because they could not stand the thundering of a cataract! Voices, I think, are more inclined to distract one than general noise; noise merely fills one’s ears, battering away at them while voices actually catch one’s attention. Among the things which create a racket all around me without distracting me at all I include the carriages hurrying by in the street, the carpenter who works in the same block, a man in the neighbourhood who saws, and this fellow tuning horns and flutes at the Trickling Fountain and emitting blasts instead of music.

But by now I have so steeled myself against all these things that I can even put up with a coxswain’s strident tones as he gives his oarsmen the rhythm. For I force my mind to become self-absorbed and not let outside things distract it. There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other.

For I force my mind to become self-absorbed and not let outside things distract it. There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other. For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil?

There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other. For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil? The peaceful stillness of the night had lulled The world to rest.

Key Concepts

• I for the life of me see that quiet is as necessary to a person who has shut himself away to do some studying as it is usually thought to be.
• Here am I with a babel of noise going on all about me. I have lodgings right over a public bathhouse.
• But I swear I no more notice all this roar of noise than I do the sound of waves or falling water
• Voices, I think, are more inclined to distract one than general noise; noise merely fills one’s ears, battering away at them while voices actually catch one’s attention.
• For I force my mind to become self-absorbed and not let outside things distract it.
• There can be absolute bedlam without so long as there is no commotion within, so long as fear and desire are not at loggerheads, so long as meanness and extravagance are not at odds and harassing each other.
• For what is the good of having silence throughout the neighbourhood if one’s emotions are in turmoil?

Context

Opening of Letter LVI, where Seneca describes the deafening environment of his lodgings over a public bathhouse and uses it to argue that inner discipline, not external quiet, determines one’s capacity for study and tranquillity.