Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
Letter 63: On grief for lost friends
Letter 63 consoles Lucilius for the death of his friend Flaccus without forbidding tears, provided they do not flow to excess.
The remembrance of lost friends can become a pleasant one, other friends remain to be made, and Seneca admits having himself wept beyond measure for Annaeus Serenus.
From the letter
I am grieved to hear that your friend Flaccus is dead, but I would not have you sorrow more than is fitting.
Let us see to it that the recollection of those whom we have lost becomes a pleasant memory to us.
For I have had them as if I should one day lose them; I have lost them as if I have them still.
Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.
I should prefer you to abandon grief, rather than have grief abandon you; and you should stop grieving as soon as possible, since, even if you wish to do so, it is impossible to keep it up for a long time.
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+ — 3 passages of this letter, each with its reference; Marcus Aurelius is free in the app.