Plain
Seneca — The Senator

You don't realize what's happening to you. You wear the face of someone whose life is going well, like people who sit happily at shows while their house burns down back home. But I can see from my high vantage point what storms are heading your way. Some will hit you later in torrents. Others are already close and about to sweep away everything you own. Even now, though you barely notice it, isn't there a whirlwind spinning around you? It confuses your mind, making you chase after things one moment and run from them the next. It lifts you up, then slams you down.

On the Happy Life, Section 28 101 of 101
Freedom & Control Knowing Yourself
Seneca — The Senator Original

This you do not understand, and you bear a countenance which does not befit your condition, like many men who sit in the circus or the theatre without having learned that their home is already in mourning: but I, looking forward from a lofty standpoint, can see what storms are either threatening you, and will burst in torrents upon you somewhat later, or are close upon you and on the point of sweeping away all that you possess. Why, though you are hardly aware of it, is there not a whirling hurricane at this moment spinning round and confusing your minds, making them seek and avoid the very same things, now raising them aloft and now dashing them below? . . . . . .”

On the Happy Life, Section 28 101 of 101
Seneca — The Senator

Why don't you look at your own problems instead? They're tearing you apart from every direction. Some attack you from the outside. Others burn inside your heart. Even if you don't know much about yourself, people haven't sunk so low that you have time to criticize those who are better than you.

On the Happy Life, Section 27 100 of 101
Knowing Yourself Human Nature
Seneca — The Senator Original

Why do you not rather cast your eyes around yourselves at the ills which tear you to pieces on every side, some attacking you from without, some burning in your own bosoms? However little you know your own place, mankind has not yet come to such a pass that you can have leisure to wag your tongues to the reproach of your betters.

On the Happy Life, Section 27 100 of 101
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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