Key Arguments

• He urges Lucilius not to seek friends only among the political elite: 'You needn’t, my dear Lucilius, look for friends only in the City or the Senate; if you keep your eyes open, you’ll find them in your own home.'
• He observes that good material often lies unused for lack of someone to recognize and use it: 'Good material often lies idle for want of someone to make use of it; just give it a trial.'
• He uses the analogy of horse‑buying: one must examine the animal, not just its equipment: 'A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool.'
• He immediately applies the analogy to people, calling it foolish to value a man by clothes or social rank: 'similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which after all is only something that we wear like clothing.'

Source Quotes

For if there’s anything typical of the slave about them as a result of the low company they’re used to living in, it will be rubbed off through association with men of better breeding. You needn’t, my dear Lucilius, look for friends only in the City or the Senate; if you keep your eyes open, you’ll find them in your own home. Good material often lies idle for want of someone to make use of it; just give it a trial.

You needn’t, my dear Lucilius, look for friends only in the City or the Senate; if you keep your eyes open, you’ll find them in your own home. Good material often lies idle for want of someone to make use of it; just give it a trial. A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which after all is only something that we wear like clothing.

Good material often lies idle for want of someone to make use of it; just give it a trial. A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool; similarly, only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which after all is only something that we wear like clothing. ‘He’s a slave.’

Key Concepts

• You needn’t, my dear Lucilius, look for friends only in the City or the Senate; if you keep your eyes open, you’ll find them in your own home.
• Good material often lies idle for want of someone to make use of it; just give it a trial.
• A man who examines the saddle and bridle and not the animal itself when he is out to buy a horse is a fool;
• only an absolute fool values a man according to his clothes, or according to his social position, which after all is only something that we wear like clothing.

Context

Later in Letter XLVII, Seneca develops his egalitarian stance further by encouraging Lucilius to recognize potential friends among slaves and criticizing judgments based on externals.