Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
Letter 11: On the blush of modesty
Letter 11 starts from a young man’s blush and concludes that what is inborn can be softened by training but never removed, not even by wisdom.
Seneca then passes on Epicurus’s advice to choose a man of high character and to live as if he were watching.
From the letter
That which is implanted and inborn can be toned down by training, but not overcome.
As I remarked, Wisdom can never remove this habit; for if she could rub out all our faults, she would be mistress of the universe.
Hear and take to heart this useful and wholesome motto: “Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them.”
We can get rid of most sins, if we have a witness who stands near us when we are likely to go wrong.
For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler.
Coverage
Our editions hold 30 letters of 124 in Richard Mott Gummere’s translation (1917–1925); 29 of them have a page here, those that Joseph Baillard’s French translation (1861) also contains.
Seneca and Epictetus are in Stoic+ — 1 passage of this letter, with its reference; Marcus Aurelius is free in the app.