19.
You cannot “still braver go,” if you are persuaded that those things are the real evils.
Root out this idea from your soul; otherwise your apprehensions will remain undecided and will thus check the impulse to action.
You will be pushed into that towards which you ought to advance like a soldier.
Those of our school, it is true, would have men think that Zeno’s syllogism is correct, but that the second I mentioned, which is set up against his, is deceptive and wrong.
But I for my part decline to reduce such questions to a matter of dialectical rules or to the subtleties of an utterly worn-out system.
Away, I say, with all that sort of thing, which makes a man feel, when a question is propounded to him, that he is hemmed in, and forces him to admit a premiss, and then makes him say one thing in his answer when his real opinion is another.
When truth is at stake, we must act more frankly; and when fear is to be combated, we must act more bravely.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the natural fear of death
Location: Chapter 82, Section 19
Content:
19.
You cannot “still braver go,” if you are persuaded that those things are the real evils.
Root out this idea from your soul; otherwise your apprehensions will remain undecided and will thus check the impulse to action.
You will be pushed into that towards which you ought to advance like a soldier.
Those of our school, it is true, would have men think that Zeno’s syllogism is correct, but that the second I mentioned, which is set up against his, is deceptive and wrong.
But I for my part decline to reduce such questions to a matter of dialectical rules or to the subtleties of an utterly worn-out system.
Away, I say, with all that sort of thing, which makes a man feel, when a question is propounded to him, that he is hemmed in, and forces him to admit a premiss, and then makes him say one thing in his answer when his real opinion is another.
When truth is at stake, we must act more frankly; and when fear is to be combated, we must act more bravely.