Seneca

This article is about GritCult's view of Seneca. For a general overview, see Seneca on Wikipedia.

Seneca
“"And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or…” (5 June 2018)
In the archive
Portal	The Philosophers
Posts	44
Retweets	258
Likes	1,931
First post	9 February 2018
Latest post	13 May 2026
Posts by year
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Related
Oscar Wilde Stoicism Epictetus Marcus Aurelius Christianity & God

Seneca appears in 44 posts from 2018 to 2026 and is GritCult's Stoic for three subjects: wasted time, the uses of adversity, and the company a man keeps. Early posts work through the letters at length; later ones are quote cards, and the most recent add a sharp gloss of his own.

Views

Time is the theme of his most-shared Seneca post, from 2026, which quotes the line that we do not have a short time to live but waste a great deal of it, then turns on the reader: '2000 years later and dudes are still doom scrolling at 2am wondering why nothing changes.' ^[1]. Earlier cards make the same point more drily, 'WHILE WE ARE POSTPONING, LIFE SPEEDS BY' ^[2], and a 2018 post adds a useful distinction: 'love of bustle, is not industry' ^[3]. In GritCult's hands Seneca is less a consoler than a timekeeper, the voice telling a man that his problem is not a shortage of hours but what he does with them.

The second theme is adversity as a whetstone. In 2018 he set 'Excellence withers without an adversary' beside lines from Robert Greene and Oscar Wilde on using and judging enemies, calling it 'A good measure, that allows one to constantly stay sharp and in shape!' ^[4]. The quote cards of 2021 push further: 'I JUDGE YOU UNFORTUNATE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER LIVED THROUGH MISFORTUNE' ^[5], joined by lines on friction polishing the gem and on toughening the soul while fortune is kind. Seneca supplies classical warrant for a conviction GritCult holds everywhere: comfort is the danger and hardship the training.

The third is company and the self. He returns several times to Seneca's advice to keep company with people who improve you, framing it in 2018 as a self-improving system of 'learning with friends' in which 'men learn while they teach' ^[6]. On travel he put the idea in his own words, adding that he was sure Seneca said the same: 'Those looking to escape, still have to put up with themselves at the end of the trip' ^[7]. The recent posts lighten the tone without dropping the doctrine. Quoting the line that we suffer more often in imagination than in reality, he admitted it 'hit different after my 47th imaginary argument today' ^[8].

Recurring themes

• time wasted, not time short
• adversity as training
• company that improves you
• no escaping yourself by travel
• self-mastery as freedom

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 51 retweets:

Selected posts

All 44 posts in the archive about Seneca, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
22 February 2026	51	470	Seneca said "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a great deal of it." 2000 years later and dudes are still doom scrolling at 2am wondering why nothing changes. the man told you. you have time. you just keep lighting it on fire. 4000 weeks. thats all…		View
22 July 2018	37	170	"Excellence withers without an adversary." -Seneca "Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies." - Robert Greene "You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies." Oscar Wilde A good measure, that allows one to constantly stay sharp and in shape!		View
4 February 2024	28	244	“If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” – Seneca		View
29 September 2019	20	70	“For the strong man, inaction is torture.” -Seneca.		View
17 March 2021	16	65	"ASSOCIATE WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE LIKELY TO IMPROVE YOU. WELCOME THOSE WHO YOU ARE CAPABLE OF IMPROVING. THE PROCESS IS A MUTUAL ONE: PEOPLE LEARN AS THEY TEACH." - SENECA		View
7 July 2019	13	88	"Wealth is the slave of the wise man, master of the fool." seneca the younger.		View
7 February 2024	11	120	No man is free who is not master of himself Seneca.		View
5 June 2018	10	27	“Study Death Always” Why Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying.		View
6 September 2018	8	64	learning with friends learning from friends self helping/evolving "system" "The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach." Seneca		View
6 December 2020	8	37	"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." - Seneca		View
9 August 2021	7	43	"I JUDGE YOU UNFORTUNATE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER LIVED THROUGH MISFORTUNE. YOU HAVE PASSED THROUGH LIFE WITHOUT AN OPPONENT— NO ONE CAN EVER KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF, NOT EVEN YOU." - SENECA		View
9 February 2022	6	20	"ASSOCIATE WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE LIKELY TO IMPROVE YOU. WELCOME THOSE WHO YOU ARE CAPABLE OF IMPROVING. THE PROCESS IS A MUTUAL ONE: MEN LEARN AS THEY TEACH" - SENECA		View
13 May 2026	5	204	"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." - Seneca this hit different after my 47th imaginary argument today		View
2 July 2021	5	27	"WEALTH IS THE SLAVE OF THE WISE MAN, MASTER OF THE FOOL." SENECA THE YOUNGER.		View
15 October 2018	5	20	Or, “Look at your wrists. There – at any time – lies freedom.” - Seneca		View
4 August 2018	5	17	Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. - Seneca		View
4 June 2021	4	27	"WEALTH IS THE SLAVE OF THE WISE MAN, MASTER OF THE FOOL." SENECA THE YOUNGER.		View
12 December 2022	3	31	"MOST POWERFUL IS HE WHO HAS HIMSELF IN HIS POWER." - SENECA		View
17 June 2023	2	25	Chance makes a plaything of a man’s life. Seneca		View
8 August 2021	2	24	“FOR THE STRONG MAN, INACTION IS TORTURE.” -SENECA.		View
30 May 2021	2	17	"WHILE WE ARE POSTPONING, LIFE SPEEDS BY." - SENECA		View
26 February 2021	2	10	"IT IS PRECISELY IN TIMES OF IMMUNITY FROM CARE THAT THE SOUL SHOULD TOUGHEN ITSELF BEFOREHAND FOR OCCASIONS OF GREATER STRESS, AND IT IS WHILE FORTUNE IS KIND THAT IT SHOULD FORTIFY ITSELF AGAINST HER VIOLENCE." - SENECA		View
5 June 2018	2	8	"And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or wrinkles, he has not lived long – he has existed long." - seneca		View
9 February 2018	2	3	“Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies.” (Seneca, Letter XLVII. On Master &Slave, 10) what im tryna propose is a move away of tribalism as a whole		View
11 April 2023	1	29	The answer I believe is multifaceted. Those who “yearn to wanderlust” have little moorings in their own home life. So per Seneca seem to escape themselves We live in monoculture. There is no uniqueness across nations. Everyone is largely the same. Watch marvel and eat McDonald		View
5 November 2021	1	11	"A GEM CANNOT BE POLISHED WITHOUT FRICTION, NOR A MAN PERFECTED WITHOUT TRIALS" - SENECA		View
26 July 2018	1	3	seneca :the eunuchs are revolting caesar : why ? seneca : their assets have been seized !		View
5 June 2018	1	2	“In largest frame, everything is fine.” sounds very much like the message Lucius Annaeus Seneca preached to Roman readers of the mid-first century, relying on Stoic philosophy, rather than an organic hallucinogen, as a way to glimpse that truth Interconnectedness of all things		View
2 May 2022	0	14	WHAT DID SENECA SAY ON DEATH? THE FINAL HOUR WHEN WE CEASE TO EXIST DOES NOT ITSELF BRING DEATH; IT MERELY OF ITSELF COMPLETES THE DEATH-PROCESS. WE REACH DEATH AT THAT MOMENT, BUT WE HAVE BEEN A LONG TIME ON THE WAY.		View
12 May 2019	0	9	@ThoughtCook I'm sure Seneca says the same. Those looking to escape, still have to put up with themselves at the end of the trip.		View
15 July 2018	0	7	by ridding ourselves of court and marketplace we do not rid ourselves of the principal torments of our life ...(torments) do not abandon us, just because we have changed our landscape [note: seneca touches a similar sentiment, that travel is merely a diversion from oneself]		View
21 March 2019	0	7	"Ignorance is the cause of fear." - Seneca the younger.		View
9 June 2018	0	5	“Every day I reduce the number of my vices.” —Seneca		View
10 May 2018	0	4	" the very season when we should be keeping the soul under strict control, making it unique in abstaining from pleasure just when the crowd are all on pleasure bent…Remaining dry and sober takes a good deal more strength of will when everyone about one is puking drunk" -Seneca		View
9 August 2019	0	4	Fool forgets I was in that Chat as well and events (over a year ago) did not transpire as detailed Paul made the same conclusion and said absolutely nothing about content But it’s not like Paul shills his own magazine full of Seneca quotes. Hypocrite.		View
11 May 2018	0	1	@FlokiandRagnar Theres like a few texts that are included in those. Epictetus. Marcus. Seneca and more Then im not sure. Im still going thru some stuff but itd be other greek philosophy or old arabic stuff		View
5 June 2018	0	1	“Study death always,” Seneca counseled his friend Lucilius, and he took his own advice.		View
5 June 2018	0	1	Seneca reveals one hesitation: when family/friends depend on you, he admits in one passage, you have to pull your departing life back from the brink. (He himself, as a young man plagued by suffocating respiratory illness, had rejected suicide for the sake of his father		View
5 June 2018	0	1	But Seneca’s writings remind us that there is also such a thing as a sanctity of death. To “die well” was immensely important to Seneca, whether that meant accepting one’s death with equanimity, choosing the time or method of one’s exit.		View
12 August 2018	0	1	@MrCasstles victor von doom (marvel) Ozymandias (watchmen) picard (trek) Lex Luthor (DC) newton aurelius/seneca Aristotle Cromwell (both) father (diligence) maternal uncle (religiosity) business mentors, i worked for (creative/first principles) karate sensei (discipline/confidence)		View
10 April 2018	0	0	love of bustle, is not industry. - seneca		View
24 May 2018	0	0	@seunn99 idk from young but he did work for him seneca (or epictetus im not sure) writes about working for a tyrant, says one must do ones duty to best ability		View
23 June 2018	0	0	@SupaMalaman you right but i dont know if it was specifically seneca or the stoics, of which i am a fan of but i think roman society in whole was very past focused on ancestor worship too		View
21 July 2018	0	0	@vrijomslachtig depends where in society > googles age of death for marcus aurelieus and seneca, they both had long ample lives. as did plenty of people i studied biotech, im familiar with advances in modern medicine in 2000 years impact of good in terms of ? life extension or gdp ?		View

History

GritCult first posted about Seneca on 9 February 2018, and most recently on 13 May 2026. Across the archive the subject comes up 44 times, most often in 2018 (21 posts).

See also

The Philosophers portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (22 February 2026). 2000 years later and dudes are still doom scrolling at 2am wondering why nothing changes. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (30 May 2021). WHILE WE ARE POSTPONING, LIFE SPEEDS BY. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (10 April 2018). love of bustle, is not industry. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (22 July 2018). Excellence withers without an adversary. ... A good measure, that allows one to constantly stay sharp and in shape! X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (9 August 2021). I JUDGE YOU UNFORTUNATE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER LIVED THROUGH MISFORTUNE. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (6 September 2018). learning with friends ... The process is mutual; for men learn while they teach. X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (12 May 2019). Those looking to escape, still have to put up with themselves at the end of the trip. X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (13 May 2026). this hit different after my 47th imaginary argument today. X.

External links

• Posts about Seneca by GRITCULT on X
• Seneca on Wikipedia