Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Do you ask what you should avoid above all? Crowds.”
Seneca · Stoicism · Ancient · c. 63–65 CE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that crowds are the chief danger to someone still forming a character, because other people's vices rub off in the crush. A competing reading takes the line as a general hatred of society, whereas the letter is advice to a progressing student, and Seneca himself lived in public. It opens Letter 7, which goes on to describe the arena and the way spectators absorb cruelty. The caution is about contagion of vice, not about the existence of cities.
Did Seneca really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A compression of Richard M. Gummere's Loeb opening of Letter 7, where Seneca tells Lucilius to avoid crowds because he cannot yet trust himself in them.
Where it comes from
Moral Letters 7.1
Approximate date: c. 63–65 CE.
How to use it
A packed pub after a match, or a comments pile under a news story, can leave you speaking in a voice you would not own in the morning. He would count that as the risk, especially if you went in to belong. Avoiding the particular crowd is not the same as avoiding every neighbour, and the test is whether you come back a little crueller or a little more eager for the spectacle.
A mindset reading
The habit is to treat company as a moral environment, not only as fun or noise. Ask what the crowd is training in you while you think you are only watching. The advice is sternest for the person who is not yet steady, and it is a poor excuse for contempt of ordinary people.
Understand the philosophy
Seneca is answering what a student of philosophy should shun first. A crowd, turba, is dangerous on his account because it communicates desires and cruelties faster than argument can answer them. The letter's example is the games, where the audience learns to enjoy death. He is not yet telling the sage how to live in public, and he is telling Lucilius that he is not a sage.
- society
- self
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that crowds are the chief danger to someone still forming a character, because other people's vices rub off in the crush. A competing reading takes the line as a general hatred of society, whereas the letter is advice to a progressing student, and Seneca himself lived in public. It opens Letter 7, which goes on to describe the arena and the way spectators absorb cruelty. The caution is about contagion of vice, not about the existence of cities.
Did Seneca really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A compression of Richard M. Gummere's Loeb opening of Letter 7, where Seneca tells Lucilius to avoid crowds because he cannot yet trust himself in them.
Which work is it in?
Moral Letters 7.1 Approximate date: c. 63–65 CE.