IV. The Highest Good Can Be Said Many Ways

Seneca offers several formulations, each true, each emphasizing something different.

The definition of the highest good can be expressed in many different forms, but they all describe the same thing.

A mind that despises the accidents of Fortune and takes pleasure in good character. An unconquerable strength of mind, knowing the world well, gentle in its dealings. A man who recognizes good and bad only in the form of good and bad character. A man who worships honor and is satisfied with his own good character. A man who is neither lifted too high by good fortune nor thrown too low by bad fortune. A man whose real pleasure lies in despising pleasures.

All of these describe the same person. The words vary. The person does not.

This person carries with them a continual cheerfulness that rises from within rather than depending on what happens around them. They take pleasure in what they have. They do not desire greater pleasures than what their own life already contains. They are proof against the petty movements of their body, against the little discomforts and little satisfactions that drive most people's moods.

On the day they become proof against pleasure they also become proof against pain. Fortune can do nothing to them, because there is nothing she has that they need.