Conquering Pain through Mental Fortitude and Reason — Seneca the Younger, Moral Letters to Lucilius 78.11–78.18, Latin & English

§78.11

"Sed molestum est," inquit, "carere adsuetis voluptatibus, abstinere cibo, sitire, esurire." Haec prima abstinentia gravia sunt. Deinde cupiditas relanguescit ipsis per quae cupimus fatigatis ac deficientibus;¹ inde morosus est stomachus, inde cuius fuit aviditas cibi, odium est. Desideria ipsa moriuntur. Non est autem acerbum carere eo, quod cupere desieris.

”But it is troublesome,” someone says, “to lack accustomed pleasures, to abstain from food, to thirst, to hunger.” These first abstinences are heavy. Then desire itself grows faint, since those very organs through which we desire are fatigued and failing; hence the stomach is squeamish, hence there is hatred for the food of which there was once greed. Desires themselves die. Moreover, it is not bitter to lack that which you have ceased to desire.

§78.12

Adice, quod nullus non intermittitur dolor aut certe remittitur. Adice, quod licet cavere venturum et obsistere inminenti remediis. Nullus enim non signa praemittit, utique qui ex solito revertitur. Tolerabilis est morbi patientia, si contempseris id quod extremum minatur.

Add the fact that there is no pain that is not interrupted or at least remitted. Add the fact that one may be on guard against what is to come and resist what is imminent with remedies. For no pain fails to send signs ahead, especially that which returns from habit. Enduring disease is tolerable if you have despised that which threatens the ultimate.

§78.13

Noli mala tua facere tibi ipse graviora et te querellis onerare. Levis est dolor, si nihil illi opinio adiecerit; contra, si exhortari te coeperis ac dicere: "Nihil est aut certe exiguum est. Duremus; iam desinet"; levem illum, dum putas, facies. Omnia ex opinione suspensa sunt; non ambitio tantum ad illam respicit et luxuria et avaritia. Ad opinionem dolemus. Tam miser est quisque quam credidit.

Do not make your evils heavier for yourself and burden yourself with complaints. Pain is light if opinion has added nothing to it; on the contrary, if you begin to encourage yourself and say: “It is nothing, or at least it is slight. Let us endure; it will soon cease”; you will make it light while you think so. All things hang upon opinion; not only ambition looks to it, but also luxury and avarice. We suffer according to opinion. Each person is as wretched as he has believed himself to be.

§78.14

Detrahendas praeteritorum dolorum conquestiones puto et illa verba: "Nulli umquam fuit peius. Quos cruciatus, quanta mala pertuli! Nemo me surrecturum putavit. Quotiens deploratus sum a meis, quotiens a medicis relictus! In eculeum inpositi non sic distrahuntur. "Etiam si sunt vera ista, transierunt. Quid iuvat praeteritos dolores retractare et miserum esse, quia fueris? Quid, quod nemo non multum malis suis adicit² et sibi ipse mentitur? Deinde quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est; naturale est mali sui fine gaudere. Circumcidenda ergo duo sunt, et futuri timor et veteris incommodi memoria; hoc ad me iam non pertinet, illud nondum.

I think that complaints about past pains should be removed, as well as those words: “No one ever had it worse. What tortures, what evils I have endured! No one thought I would rise again. How often I was lamented by my family, how often abandoned by the doctors! Those placed upon the rack are not so torn apart.” Even if those things are true, they have passed. What does it help to retrace past pains and to be wretched because you have been? What of the fact that no one fails to add much to his evils and lies to himself? Then, what was bitter to bear is pleasant to have borne; it is natural to rejoice at the end of one’s evil. Therefore, two things must be cut away: the fear of the future and the memory of old inconvenience; the latter no longer belongs to me, the former not yet.

§78.15

In ipsis positus difficultatibus dicat: "Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit." Toto contra ille pugnet animo; vincetur, si cesserit, vincet, si se contra dolorem suum intenderit. Nunc hoc plerique faciunt, attrahunt in se ruinam, cui obstandum est. Istud quod premit, quod inpendet, quod urget, si subducere te coeperis, sequetur et gravius incumbet; si contra steteris et obniti volueris, repelletur.

Placed in those very difficulties, let one say: “Perhaps one day it will be pleasing to remember even these things.” Let him fight against it with all his mind; he will be conquered if he yields, he will conquer if he exerts himself against his pain. Now most people do this: they draw down upon themselves ruin, which ought to be resisted. That which presses, which impends, which urges, if you begin to withdraw yourself, will follow and weigh more heavily; if you stand against it and wish to resist, it will be repelled.

§78.16

Athletae quantum plagarum ore, quantum toto corpore excipiunt? Ferunt tamen omne tormentum gloriae cupiditate nec tantum quia pugnant, ista patiuntur, sed ut pugnent. Exercitatio ipsa tormentum est. Nos quoque evincamus omnia, quorum praemium non corona nec palma est nec tubicen praedicatum! nominis nostri silentium faciens,³ sed virtus et firmitas animi et pax in ceterum parta, si semel in aliquo certamine debellata fortuna est.

How many blows do athletes receive on their faces, how many on their whole bodies? Yet they bear every torment through desire for glory, and they suffer those things not only because they fight, but that they may fight. Exercise itself is a torment. Let us also conquer all things, whose reward is not a crown or a palm, nor a trumpeter making silence for the proclamation of our name, but virtue and steadfastness of mind, and peace won for the future, if once in some contest fortune has been utterly defeated.

§78.17

" Dolorem gravem sentio." Quid ergo? Non sentis, si illum muliebriter tuleris?⁴ Quemadmodum perniciosior est hostis fugientibus, sic omne fortuitum incommodum magis instat cedenti et averso. "Sed grave est." Quid? Nos ad hoc fortes sumus, ut levia portemus? Utrum vis longum esse morbum an concitatum et brevem? Si longus est, habet intercapedinem, dat refectioni locum, multum temporis donat, necesse est, ut exurgit, et desinat. Brevis morbus ac praeceps alterutrum faciet: aut extinguetur aut extinguet. Quid autem interest, non sit an non sim? In utroque finis dolendi est.

”I feel heavy pain.” What of it? Do you not feel it, if you bear it in a womanish way? Just as an enemy is more destructive to those who flee, so every accidental inconvenience presses harder upon one who yields and turns away. “But it is heavy.” What? Are we strong for this, to carry light things? Do you wish the disease to be long, or violent and brief? If it is long, it has an interval, gives place to recovery, grants much time; it must, as it rises, also cease. A brief and steep disease will do one of two things: it will either be extinguished or extinguish. What does it matter, however, whether it does not exist or I do not exist? In both there is an end of pain.

§78.18

Illud quoque proderit, ad alias cogitationes avertere animum et a dolore discedere. Cogita quid honeste, quid fortiter feceris; bonas partes tecum ipse tracta. Memoriam in ea, quae maxime miratus es, sparge. Tunc tibi fortissimus quisque et victor doloris occurrat: ille, qui cum varices exsecandas praeberet, legere librum perseveravit; ille, qui non desiit ridere, cum hoc ipsum irati tortores omnia instrumenta crudelitatis suae experirentur. Non vincetur dolor ratione, qui victus est risu?

It will also be beneficial to turn the mind to other thoughts and to depart from pain. Think of what you have done honorably, what bravely; run over your good parts with yourself. Scatter your memory upon those things which you have most admired. Then let every bravest man and victor over pain occur to you: he who, when presenting his varicose veins to be cut out, continued to read a book; he who did not cease to laugh when angry torturers tried every instrument of their cruelty upon this very thing. Will not pain be conquered by reason, which has been conquered by laughter?

Syntax notes4 items

78.11ipsis per quae cupimus fatigatis ac deficientibus
The phrase "ipsis... fatigatis ac deficientibus" is an ablative absolute construction containing the relative pronoun quae (neuter plural, referring to bodily organs/means of desire). It explains how physical exhaustion leads to the death of desire itself.
78.14Quid, quod nemo non multum malis suis adicit
The phrase "Quid, quod" is an idiomatic interrogative formula introducing a new fact ("What of the fact that..."). "nemo non" is a double negative functioning as a strong positive ("everyone").
78.16tubicen praedicatum! nominis nostri silentium faciens
This passage has various readings in different editions. Here, "praedicatum" (often emended to "praedicando") works alongside "nominis nostri" and "silentium faciens" to describe a trumpeter who, in proclaiming our name, commands silence from others.
78.17Non sentis, si illum muliebriter tuleris?
A rhetorical question with a conditional clause "si... tuleris" (future perfect). It conveys the logical point that since you will feel the pain regardless of how you bear it, you should not bear it weakly ("Do you not feel it, even if you bear it in a womanish way?").

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25) · Revision history (1, latest 2026-09-22)

2026-09-22 AI review — source 1

urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:78.11-78.18