You can see without me having to explain that once we push away everything that excites us or frightens us, we get unbroken peace and real freedom. Instead of chasing physical pleasures and fleeting things that drag us into shameful behavior, we gain something much better: a huge, steady, unchanging joy. Along with that comes peace, calm, greatness of mind, and kindness to others. Cruelty always comes from weakness.
You understand without my mentioning it that an unbroken calm and freedom ensue, when we have driven away all those things which either excite us or alarm us: for in the place of sensual pleasures and those slight perishable matters which are connected with the basest crimes, we thus gain an immense, unchangeable, equable joy, together with peace, calmness and greatness of mind, and kindliness: for all savageness is a sign of weakness.