Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 20

Rationale autem non est; ergo nec animal. Si virtus animal est, virtus autem bonum, non est omne bonum animal? Est. Hoc nostri fatentur. Patrem servare bonum est, et sententiam prudenter in senatu dicere bonum est, et iuste decernere bonum est; ergo et patrem servare animal est et prudenter sententiam dicere animal est. Eo usque res exegit, ut risum tenere non possis: prudenter tacere bonum est, frugaliter cenare bonum est; ita et tacere et cenare animal est.

elle n’est pas animal raisonnable, elle n’est donc pas animal. Si la vertu est animal, et que tout bien soit vertu, tout bien est animal. Nos stoïciens l’avouent. Sauver son père est un bien ; opiner sagement au sénat est un bien ; rendre exacte justice est un bien :

If virtue is a living thing, and virtue is a Good - is not, then, every Good a living thing? It is. Our school professes it. Now to save a father’s life is a Good; it is also a Good to pronounce one’s opinion judiciously in the senate, and it is a Good to hand down just opinions; therefore the act of saving a father’s life is a living thing, also the act of pronouncing judicious opinions. We have carried this absurd argument so far that you cannot keep from laughing outright: wise silence is a Good, and so is a frugal dinner; therefore silence and dining are living things.