Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: You, therefore, who allow them to trouble you to…
You, therefore, who allow them to trouble you to an unreasonable extent ought especially to restrain yourselves, and to muster all the powers of the human breast to combat your fears and your pains. Moreover, what forgetfulness of your own position and that of mankind is this?
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
Pain is part of being alive, but we often add a second layer by treating it as an outrage. We expect life to protect us from fear, loss, and disappointment, then feel personally betrayed when it does not. Seneca asks us to remember our position: we are human beings in a world where human beings are vulnerable. That thought should not harden us; it should steady us. When fear arrives, do not give it every authority simply because it is loud. When grief arrives, do not assume it has disproved your ability to live. Gather the resources available to you—reason, friends, routines, courage, professional help—and meet the difficulty as a human difficulty. Today, name the pain honestly, then name one capacity you still possess. You are not only what has happened to you.
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