Key Arguments

• He criticizes the habit of recounting illness in exaggerated terms (e.g., 'No one had ever been in such a bad state. The torments and hardships I endured!'), and calls this 'something I think should be banned,' since 'Even if all this is true, it is past history.'
• He asks, 'What’s the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then?' and notes that people 'add a good deal to his tale of hardships and deceive himself as well in the matter.'
• He observes a paradoxical positive affect: 'there is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring, something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad.'
• He identifies two mental habits to be eliminated: 'There are two things, then, the recollecting of trouble in the past as well as the fear of troubles to come, that I have to root out: the first is no longer of any concern to me and the second has yet to be so.'

Source Quotes

A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is. And complaining away about one’s sufferings after they are over (you know the kind of language: ‘No one had ever been in such a bad state. The torments and hardships I endured! No one thought I would recover.

A man on the rack isn’t torn with pain the way I was’) is something I think should be banned. Even if all this is true, it is past history. What’s the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then? What is more, doesn’t everyone add a good deal to his tale of hardships and deceive himself as well in the matter?

What is more, doesn’t everyone add a good deal to his tale of hardships and deceive himself as well in the matter? Besides, there is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring, something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad. There are two things, then, the recollecting of trouble in the past as well as the fear of troubles to come, that I have to root out: the first is no longer of any concern to me and the second has yet to be so.

Besides, there is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring, something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad. There are two things, then, the recollecting of trouble in the past as well as the fear of troubles to come, that I have to root out: the first is no longer of any concern to me and the second has yet to be so. And when a man is in the grip of difficulties he should say There may be pleasure in the memory Of even these events one day.

Key Concepts

• complaining away about one’s sufferings after they are over (you know the kind of language: ‘No one had ever been in such a bad state. The torments and hardships I endured!
• Even if all this is true, it is past history. What’s the good of dragging up sufferings which are over, of being unhappy now just because you were then?
• there is a pleasure in having succeeded in enduring, something the actual enduring of which was very far from pleasant; when some trouble or other comes to an end the natural thing is to be glad.
• There are two things, then, the recollecting of trouble in the past as well as the fear of troubles to come, that I have to root out: the first is no longer of any concern to me and the second has yet to be so.

Context

In the middle of Letter LXXVIII, Seneca broadens his analysis from present pain to the memory and anticipation of suffering, advocating a disciplined attitude toward both temporal directions.