Note 167 — Chapter X · ETHICS. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE STOIC ETHICS. ABSTRACT THEORY OF MORALITY.
Oswald J. (Oswald Joseph) Reichel translation
No one probably has expressed this opinion more frequently or more strongly than Seneca. We are wicked, he says; we have been wicked; we shall be wicked. Our ancestors complained of the decline of morals; we complain of their decline; and posterity will utter the very same complaint. The limits within which morality oscillates are not far asunder; the modes in which vice shows itself change, but its power remains the same.167 All men are wicked; and he who has as yet done nothing wicked is at least in a condition to do it. All are thankless, avaricious, cowardly, impious; all are mad.168 We have all done wrong—one in a less, the other in a greater degree; and we shall all do wrong to the end of the chapter.169 One drives the other into folly, and the foolish are too numerous to allow the individual to improve.170 He who would be angry with the vices of men, instead of pitying their faults, would never stop. So great is the amount of iniquity!171