2.
I prefer to be in trouble rather than in luxury; and you had better interpret the term “in trouble” as popular usage is wont to interpret it: living a “hard,” “rough,” “toilsome” life.
We are wont to hear the lives of certain men praised as follows, when they are objects of unpopularity: “So-and-So lives luxuriously”; but by this they mean: “He is softened by luxury.” For the soul is made womanish by degrees, and is weakened until it matches the ease and laziness in which it lies.
Lo, is it not better for one who is really a man even to become hardened?
Next, these same dandies fear that which they have made their own lives resemble.
Much difference is there between lying idle and lying buried!
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 2
Content:
2.
I prefer to be in trouble rather than in luxury; and you had better interpret the term “in trouble” as popular usage is wont to interpret it: living a “hard,” “rough,” “toilsome” life.
We are wont to hear the lives of certain men praised as follows, when they are objects of unpopularity: “So-and-So lives luxuriously”; but by this they mean: “He is softened by luxury.” For the soul is made womanish by degrees, and is weakened until it matches the ease and laziness in which it lies.
Lo, is it not better for one who is really a man even to become hardened?
Next, these same dandies fear that which they have made their own lives resemble.
Much difference is there between lying idle and lying buried!