§78.11"Sed molestum est," inquit, "carere adsuetis voluptatibus, abstinere cibo, sitire, esurire. "Haec prima abstinentia gravia sunt.
"But it is troublesome," someone says, "to lack accustomed pleasures, to abstain from food, to thirst, to hunger." These first abstinences are heavy.
Deinde cupiditas relanguescit ipsis per quae cupimus fatigatis ac deficientibus; inde morosus est stomachus, inde cuius fuit aviditas cibi, odium est.
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.
Desideria ipsa moriuntur.
Desires themselves die.
Non est autem acerbum carere eo, quod cupere desieris.
Moreover, it is not bitter to lack that which you have ceased to desire.
§78.12Adice, quod nullus non intermittitur dolor aut certe remittitur.
Add the fact that there is no pain that is not interrupted or at least remitted.
Adice, quod licet cavere venturum et obsistere inminenti remediis.
Add the fact that one may be on guard against what is to come and resist what is imminent with remedies.
Nullus enim non signa praemittit, utique qui ex solito revertitur.
For no pain fails to send signs ahead, especially that which returns from habit.
Tolerabilis est morbi patientia, si contempseris id quod extremum minatur.
Enduring disease is tolerable if you have despised that which threatens the ultimate.
§78.13Noli mala tua facere tibi ipse graviora et te querellis onerare.
Do not make your evils heavier for yourself and burden yourself with complaints.
Levis est dolor, si nihil illi opinio adiecerit; contra, si exhortari te coeperis ac dicere: "Nihil est aut certe exiguum est.
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.
Duremus; iam desinet"; levem illum, dum putas, facies.
Let us endure; it will soon cease"; you will make it light while you think so.
Omnia ex opinione suspensa sunt; non ambitio tantum ad illam respicit et luxuria et avaritia.
All things hang upon opinion; not only ambition looks to it, but also luxury and avarice.
Ad opinionem dolemus.
We suffer according to opinion.
Tam miser est quisque quam credidit.
Each person is as wretched as he has believed himself to be.
§78.14Detrahendas praeteritorum dolorum conquestiones puto et illa verba: "Nulli umquam fuit peius.
I think that complaints about past pains should be removed, as well as those words: "No one ever had it worse.
Quos cruciatus, quanta mala pertuli! Nemo me surrecturum putavit.
What tortures, what evils I have endured! No one thought I would rise again.
Quotiens deploratus sum a meis, quotiens a medicis relictus! In eculeum inpositi non sic distrahuntur. "Etiam si sunt vera ista, transierunt.
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.
Quid iuvat praeteritos dolores retractare et miserum esse, quia fueris? Quid, quod nemo non multum malis suis adicit et sibi ipse mentitur? Deinde quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est; naturale est mali sui fine gaudere.
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.
Circumcidenda ergo duo sunt, et futuri timor et veteris incommodi memoria; hoc ad me iam non pertinet, illud nondum.
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.
§78.15In 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.
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.
Nunc hoc plerique faciunt, ad trahunt in se ruinam, cui obstandum est.
Now most people do this: they draw down upon themselves ruin, which ought to be resisted.
Istud quod premit, quod inpendet, quod urget, si subducere te coeperis, sequetur et gravius incumbet; si contra steteris et obniti volueris, repelletur.
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.
§78.16Athletae quantum plagarum ore, quantum toto corpore excipiunt? Ferunt tamen omne tormentum gloriae cupiditate nec tantum quia pugnant, ista patiuntur, sed ut pugnent.
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.
Exercitatio ipsa tormentum est.
Exercise itself is a torment.
Nos quoque evincamus omnia, quorum praemium non corona nec palma est nec tubicen praedicatum! nominis nostri silentium faciens, sed virtus et firmitas animi et pax in ceterum parta, si semel in aliquo certamine debellata fortuna est.
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.
"I feel heavy pain." What of it?
"Quid ergo? Non sentis, si illum muliebriter tuleris? Quemadmodum perniciosior est hostis fugientibus, sic omne fortuitum incommodum magis instat cedenti et averso.
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.
"Sed grave est.
"But it is heavy." What?
"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.
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.
Brevis morbus ac praeceps alterutrum faciet: aut extinguetur aut extinguet.
A brief and steep disease will do one of two things: it will either be extinguished or extinguish.
Quid autem interest, non sit an non sim? In utroque finis dolendi est.
What does it matter, however, whether it does not exist or I do not exist? In both there is an end of pain.
§78.18Illud quoque proderit, ad alias cogitationes avertere animum et a dolore discedere.
It will also be beneficial to turn the mind to other thoughts and to depart from pain.
Cogita quid honeste, quid fortiter feceris; bonas partes tecum ipse tracta.
Think of what you have done honorably, what bravely; run over your good parts with yourself.
Memoriam in ea, quae maxime miratus es, sparge.
Scatter your memory upon those things which you have most admired.
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.
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.
Non vincetur dolor ratione, qui victus est risu?
Will not pain be conquered by reason, which has been conquered by laughter?