"no one among those in political life counts the number of men he has outstripped, but only those by whom he is outdone: it is not so sweet to them to see many men behind them as it is distressing to see anyone ahead of them. All ambition has this fault, that it does not look behind. And it is not only ambition that is unstable but every desire, because it always begins again at the end."
- Seneca, Letters 73.3
Sadly, this applies to most of us, I think - not just those in political life. We are so preoccupied with ambition that even all or most of our social life is organized in relation to our current career goals.
The Arles bust, possibly of Julius Caesar, c. 46 BC.
So true for many desires. I find Epicurus' division of desires into three types useful here. Natural and necessary (food, shelter, companionship) vs natural but unneccessary (rich foods, the hot neighbor) vs unnatural and unnecessary (fame, money, honor, a new Corvette). We can see then that Seneca is talking most here about the 3rd type, which is most obviously problematic.
So true for many desires. I find Epicurus' division of desires into three types useful here. Natural and necessary (food, shelter, companionship) vs natural but unneccessary (rich foods, the hot neighbor) vs unnatural and unnecessary (fame, money, honor, a new Corvette). We can see then that Seneca is talking most here about the 3rd type, which is most obviously problematic.
The quote is from Elaine Fantham's brilliant translation of a selection of Seneca's letters in the Oxford Wold Classics series - published in 2010.