On the Happy Life, Section 25

Seneca — The Senator

What's my point in all this? I'd rather have to control my joys than suppress my sorrows. The great Socrates would tell you the same thing. "Make me the conqueror of all nations," he would say. "Let Bacchus's luxurious chariot carry me in triumph to Thebes from the rising sun. Let the Persian kings receive their laws from me. Even then, I'll still feel like a man at the very moment when everyone around me greets me as a god. Now connect this high point with a sudden fall into misfortune. Put me on a foreign chariot so I can decorate the triumph of a proud and savage conqueror."

Seneca — The Senator Original

What, then, is the upshot of all this? it is that I prefer to have to regulate joys than to stifle sorrows. The great Socrates would say the same thing to you. "Make me," he would say, "the conqueror of all nations: let the voluptuous car of Bacchus bear me in triumph to Thebes from the rising of the sun: let the kings of the Persians receive laws from me: yet I shall feel myself to be a man at the very moment when all around salute me as a God. Straightway connect this lofty height with a headlong fall into misfortune: let me be placed upon a foreign chariot that I may grace the triumph of a proud and savage conqueror: