Key Arguments

• He counters the objection 'He’s a slave' by affirming that the man may possess inward freedom:
• He’s a slave.’ But is that really to count against him?'
• He demands an example of a truly non‑enslaved man, then lists common internal masters: 'Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear.'
• He illustrates that even high officials and rich men can be enslaved to despised relationships: 'I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. I could show you some highly aristocratic young men who are utter slaves to stage artistes.'
• He concludes with a general evaluative claim: 'And there’s no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.'

Source Quotes

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.’ But he may have the spirit of a free man. ‘He’s a slave.’ But is that really to count against him? Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear.

But is that really to count against him? Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service.

Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear. I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. I could show you some highly aristocratic young men who are utter slaves to stage artistes. And there’s no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.

I could show you some highly aristocratic young men who are utter slaves to stage artistes. And there’s no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed. So you needn’t allow yourself to be deterred by the snobbish people I’ve been talking about from showing good humour towards your slaves instead of adopting an attitude of arrogant superiority towards them.

Key Concepts

• ‘He’s a slave.’ But he may have the spirit of a free man. ‘He’s a slave.’ But is that really to count against him?
• Show me a man who isn’t a slave; one is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear.
• I could show you a man who has been a Consul who is a slave to his ‘little old woman’, a millionaire who is the slave of a little girl in domestic service. I could show you some highly aristocratic young men who are utter slaves to stage artistes.
• And there’s no state of slavery more disgraceful than one which is self-imposed.

Context

In the later section of Letter XLVII, Seneca relativizes social slavery by exposing various forms of moral and psychological slavery among the supposedly free and powerful, redefining true slavery as subjection to one’s own vices and attachments.