📄 Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27

August 24, 2023 17:13 • Category: Thoughts • #stoicism

Therefore, explain why a wise person shouldn’t get drunk—not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness. It’s most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measure, are but punishments.

—Seneca, Moral Letters, 83.27

From the book The Daily Stoic, the August 23rd entry.

While this entry is mainly about appealing to ones self-interest in order to prompt change in or influence the behavior of another. I find this resonates with me more when it comes to balancing pleasures.

...It’s most easy to prove that so-called pleasures, when they go beyond proper measure, are but punishments.

I like to drink beer, but if I drank beer every day and all day, that pleasure would become a punishment. My health would decline, the pleasure I got from drinking beer would all but disappear, and drinking beer would turn into a punishment. The key to remember here that there cannot be pleasure without pain, good without bad, up without down. Moderation is key most of the time, but there are also things that just shouldn't be engaged in.

...explain why a wise person shouldn’t get drunk—not with words, but by the facts of its ugliness and offensiveness....

But to keep things on theme with this passage from The Daily Stoic, we're not going to moral grandstand and lecture. Instead of telling yourself that it simply bad to do, remind yourself why it is bad. How will you feel if you drank all day? What are the healthy implications? How will your life be worse off if you drank all the time?