Pleasure in Its Proper Place
Pleasure is not evil but is properly enjoyed when it arises naturally from virtuous activity rather than being pursued as a goal.
Unlike the popular caricature of Stoics as pleasure-haters, Stoics acknowledged pleasure as a natural 'preferred indifferent.' Physical pleasure arising naturally from virtuous activity is welcome. What Stoics oppose is pursuing pleasure as the highest good or allowing it to override virtue.
It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.
The Stoic position on pleasure distinguishes their philosophy from both hedonism and extreme asceticism — a middle path grounded in virtue.
Epistulae Morales
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about envy and comparison
Seneca's line is a definition, not a consolation: poverty is not having too little but hankering after more. By that definition the person you envy may be poorer than you are, and moving up the ladder cannot fix your position on it.