Key Arguments

• Seneca quotes Epicurus as giving a practical maxim: '‘We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.’', proposing an internalized witness as a moral aid.
• He interprets this as providing 'a guardian and a moral tutor', and explains its rationale: '– and not without reason, either: misdeeds are greatly diminished if a witness is always standing near intending doers,' arguing that felt observation restrains wrongdoing.
• He says 'The personality should be provided with someone it can revere, someone whose influence can make even its private, inner life more pure,' explicitly extending the influence beyond outward behavior to inner thoughts.
• He describes the special excellence of such an exemplar: 'Happy the man who improves other people not merely when he is in their presence but even when he is in their thoughts!', suggesting that the mere recollection of a virtuous person can have pedagogical power.
• He similarly blesses the disciple’s side of the relation: 'And happy, too, is the person who can so revere another as to adjust and shape his own personality in the light of recollections, even, of that other. A person able to revere another thus will soon deserve to be revered himself.', arguing that deep reverence for a model is itself transformative.
• He urges Lucilius to pick specific historical exemplars: 'So choose yourself a Cato – or, if Cato seems too severe for you, a Laelius, a man whose character is not quite so strict.', illustrating that different temperaments may choose sterner or milder models.
• He specifies the selection criteria: 'Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval.', stressing that both conduct, speech, and visible bearing should align.
• He instructs Lucilius on how to use this figure: 'Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model.', indicating a continuous, active mental rehearsal of the exemplar’s presence.
• He concludes with a metaphor: 'There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make the crooked straight.', arguing that we cannot correct our faults without a fixed standard of comparison.

Source Quotes

Here’s one for you, one that will serve you in good stead, too, which I’d like you to take to heart. ‘We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.’ This, my dear Lucilius, is Epicurus’ advice, and in giving it he has given us a guardian and a moral tutor – and not without reason, either: misdeeds are greatly diminished if a witness is always standing near intending doers.

‘We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.’ This, my dear Lucilius, is Epicurus’ advice, and in giving it he has given us a guardian and a moral tutor – and not without reason, either: misdeeds are greatly diminished if a witness is always standing near intending doers. The personality should be provided with someone it can revere, someone whose influence can make even its private, inner life more pure.

This, my dear Lucilius, is Epicurus’ advice, and in giving it he has given us a guardian and a moral tutor – and not without reason, either: misdeeds are greatly diminished if a witness is always standing near intending doers. The personality should be provided with someone it can revere, someone whose influence can make even its private, inner life more pure. Happy the man who improves other people not merely when he is in their presence but even when he is in their thoughts!

The personality should be provided with someone it can revere, someone whose influence can make even its private, inner life more pure. Happy the man who improves other people not merely when he is in their presence but even when he is in their thoughts! And happy, too, is the person who can so revere another as to adjust and shape his own personality in the light of recollections, even, of that other.

Happy the man who improves other people not merely when he is in their presence but even when he is in their thoughts! And happy, too, is the person who can so revere another as to adjust and shape his own personality in the light of recollections, even, of that other. A person able to revere another thus will soon deserve to be revered himself.

A person able to revere another thus will soon deserve to be revered himself. So choose yourself a Cato – or, if Cato seems too severe for you, a Laelius, a man whose character is not quite so strict. Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval.

So choose yourself a Cato – or, if Cato seems too severe for you, a Laelius, a man whose character is not quite so strict. Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval. Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model.

Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian or as your model. There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make the crooked straight.

Key Concepts

• ‘We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.’
• in giving it he has given us a guardian and a moral tutor – and not without reason, either: misdeeds are greatly diminished if a witness is always standing near intending doers.
• The personality should be provided with someone it can revere, someone whose influence can make even its private, inner life more pure.
• Happy the man who improves other people not merely when he is in their presence but even when he is in their thoughts!
• And happy, too, is the person who can so revere another as to adjust and shape his own personality in the light of recollections, even, of that other.
• So choose yourself a Cato – or, if Cato seems too severe for you, a Laelius, a man whose character is not quite so strict.
• Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose very face as mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval.
• There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against you won’t make the crooked straight.

Context

In the closing section of Letter XI, Seneca cites Epicurus’ counsel about keeping a good man always before one’s eyes and develops it into a Stoic practice of internalizing a moral exemplar (such as Cato or Laelius) as a constant observer and measuring rod for one’s own character.