Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On a Happy Life 28 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1889)
Seneca, On a Happy Life 28
This you do not understand, and you bear a countenance which does not befit your condition, like many men who sit in the circus or the theatre without having learned that their home is already in mourning: but I, looking forward from a lofty standpoint, can see what storms are either threatening you, and will burst in torrents upon you somewhat later, or are close upon you and on the point of sweeping away all that you possess. Why, though you are hardly aware of it, is there not a whirling hurricane at this moment spinning round and confusing your minds, making them seek and avoid the very same things, now raising them aloft and now dashing them below?
Cite this passage
Seneca, On a Happy Life 28, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1889)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-a-happy-life/28
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesMost people carry on cheerfully, like spectators at a show, without noticing that trouble is already in their own house or about to arrive. Their minds are spun around by contradictory wants, chasing and fleeing the very same things, so they never settle.
Older wording
- “countenance”
- — facial expression or outward bearing
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Desire and craving
- Emotions and the passions
- Preparing for difficulty
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