Sobre la felicidad ; Sobre la brevedad de la vida

Seneca's rich and attractive personality, who brought together the politician, the writer, and the philosopher, could not go unnoticed by his contemporaries or later scholars. With a curious spirit, permeable to any attempt at scientific explanation, with a great rationalistic zeal, he was Nero's tutor -who later ordered his suicide- and protected from the intriguing Agrippina, whose death he did not know or did not want to prevent. His literary excesses, his ethical or philosophical recommendations, certain affinities with Christianity, the incompatibility of Stoic doctrines with his life of luxury, the silences and complicity with the excesses of the emperors are traits that characterize the Cordovan philosopher and that can be traced in his dialogues and epistles. On happiness it deals with how the wise man should aspire to absolute values, to achieve inner freedom in the face of states of wealth or poverty, the different circumstances of life can advise attitudes or values ??preferable to others. In On the brevity of life he comes to assure that the only one capable of enjoying life is the educated man who remembers the past, makes use of the present and has foresight for the future, while the clumsy do not control the past, the present is it escapes them and they fear the future.