Seneca Tells us that Pleasure and Virtue are like Oil and Water

 Today Seneca tells us even more about how pleasure and virtue are not the same thing. He says, "Some unhappy people are not without pleasure, nay, it is owing to pleasure itself that they are unhappy; and this could not take place if pleasure had any connection with virtue, whereas virtue is often without pleasure, and never stands in need of it. Why do you put two things together which are unlike and even incompatible one with another [like oil and water]?"

Seneca takes his argument against the Epicureans to an extreme here. He says not only are pleasure and virtue not the same, but they are "incompatible one with another". Almost as though they are opposites. That you can only gain virtue by eschewing pleasure. Of course, Seneca will go on to explain that he doesn't mean it quite that strongly. That we should neither desire pleasure nor fear it, but allow it to happen or not happen as life gives it to us. We should not base our reason on the presence or absence of pleasure.

See you tomorrow!