17.
What then; are you relieved from feeling it, if you endure it like a woman?
Just as an enemy is more dangerous to a retreating army, so every trouble that fortune brings attacks us all the harder if we yield and turn our backs. “But the trouble is serious.” What?
Is it for this purpose that we are strong,—that we may have light burdens to bear?
Would you have your illness long-drawn-out, or would you have it quick and short?
If it is long, it means a respite, allows you a period for resting yourself, bestows upon you the boon of time in plenty; as it arises, so it must also subside.
A short and rapid illness will do one of two things: it will quench or be quenched.
And what difference does it make whether it is not or I am not?
In either case there is an end of pain.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the healing power of the mind
Location: Chapter 78, Section 17
Content:
17.
What then; are you relieved from feeling it, if you endure it like a woman?
Just as an enemy is more dangerous to a retreating army, so every trouble that fortune brings attacks us all the harder if we yield and turn our backs. “But the trouble is serious.” What?
Is it for this purpose that we are strong,—that we may have light burdens to bear?
Would you have your illness long-drawn-out, or would you have it quick and short?
If it is long, it means a respite, allows you a period for resting yourself, bestows upon you the boon of time in plenty; as it arises, so it must also subside.
A short and rapid illness will do one of two things: it will quench or be quenched.
And what difference does it make whether it is not or I am not?
In either case there is an end of pain.