Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶25–37 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶25–37

A. A great waste of time, truly! for who is so weak as to be concerned about them? M. If, then, there is no one miserable in the infernal regions, there can be no one there at all. A. I am altogether of that opinion. M. Where, then, are those you call miserable? or what place do they inhabit? For, if they exist at all, they must be somewhere. A. I, indeed, am of opinion that they are nowhere. M. Then they have no existence at all. A. Even so, and yet they are miserable for this very reason, that they have no existence. M. I had rather now have you afraid of Cerberus than speak thus inaccurately. A. In what respect? M. Because you admit him to exist whose existence you deny with the same breath. Where now is your sagacity? When you say anyone is miserable, you say that he who does not exist, does exist. A. I am not so absurd as to say that. M. What is it that you do say, then? A. I say, for instance, that Marcus Crassus is miserable in being deprived of such great riches as his by death, that Cn. Pompey is miserable in being taken from such glory and honor, and, in short, that all are miserable who are deprived of this light of life.