Tusculan Disputations 4 ¶37 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 4 ¶37

They say that even grief, which we have already said ought to be avoided as a monstrous and fierce beast, was appointed by nature, not without some good purpose, in order that men should lament when they had committed a fault, well knowing they had exposed themselves to correction, rebuke, and ignominy. For they think that those who can bear ignominy and infamy without pain have acquired a complete impunity for all sorts of crimes, for with them reproach is a stronger check than conscience. From whence we have that scene in Afranius borrowed from common life, for when the abandoned son said, “Wretched that I am!” the severe father replies, Let him but grieve, no matter what the cause. And they say the other divisions of sorrow have their use: that pity incites us to hasten to the assistance of others, and to alleviate the calamities of men who have undeservedly fallen into them; that even envy and detraction are not without their use, as when a man sees that another person has attained what he cannot, or observes another to be equally successful with himself; that he who should take away fear would take away all industry in life, which those men exert in the greatest degree who are afraid of the laws and of the magistrates, who dread poverty, ignominy, death, and pain. But while they argue thus, they allow indeed of these feelings being retrenched, though they deny that they either can or should be plucked up by the roots, so that their opinion is that mediocrity is best in everything. When they reason in this manner, what think you—is what they say worth attending to or not?