Tusculan Disputations 4 ¶48 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 4 ¶48

But fear borders upon grief—of which I have already said enough, but I must say a little more on that. Now, as grief proceeds from what is present, so does fear from future evil, so that some have said that fear is a certain part of grief. Others have called fear the harbinger of trouble, which, as it were, introduces the ensuing evil. Now, the reasons that make what is present supportable, make what is to come very contemptible, for, with regard to both, we should take care to do nothing low or grovelling, soft or effeminate, mean or abject. But notwithstanding we should speak of the inconstancy, imbecility, and levity of fear itself, yet it is of very great service to speak contemptuously of those very things of which we are afraid. So that it fell out very well, whether it was by accident or design, that I disputed the first and second day on death and pain—the two things that are the most dreaded. Now, if what I then said was approved of, we are in a great degree freed from fear. And this is sufficient, as far as regards the opinion of evils.