Ungrateful prayers

Often appears with: truth vs flattery · prayer and worship · flattery and deceit · civic ruin · advice to the rich

Usually: argument (1) · censure (1) · indignation (1)

L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits primary

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 59-65 CE (approx.)
BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude--How a benefit ought to be bestowed--The three Graces--Benefits are the chief bond of human society--What we owe in return for a benefit received--A benefit consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good--Socrates and > BOOK VI. (20/28)

He calls an ungrateful attitude a kind of wrong prayer and urges wishing the benefactor well instead, arguing that even the wealthy need truth, candour, and honest friendship rather than flattery.

may impart to us, and by social intercourse. There is no one so highly placed by fortune as not to want a friend all the more because he wants nothing. XXX. The other is a melancholy opportunity, and one which we ought always to pray may be kept far from us: must the gods be angry with a man in order that you may prove your gratitude to him? Do you not perceive that you are doing wrong, from the very fact that those…