Plain
Seneca — The Senator

I promise you that minds infected by desires — like bodies covered in spreading sores — actually enjoy stress and trouble. Some things please our bodies while also causing pain. Think about how you toss and turn in bed, switching positions before you're even tired of the current one. Or how you keep moving to find a cool spot. It's like Homer's Achilles, lying first on his stomach, then on his back, shifting into different positions. Like sick people do, he can't stand any position for long. He keeps changing as if the movement itself could cure him.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 20 of 100
Calm Your Mind Human Nature
Seneca — The Senator Original

Similarly I assure you that these minds, over which desires have spread like evil ulcers, take pleasure in toils and troubles, for there are some things which please our body while at the same time they give it a certain amount of pain, such as turning oneself over and changing one's side before it is wearied, or cooling oneself in one position after another. It is like Homer's Achilles, lying first upon its face, then upon its back, placing itself in various attitudes, and, as sick people are wont, enduring none of them for long, and using changes as though they were remedies.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 20 of 100
Seneca — The Senator

This hatred of other people's success, combined with despair about your own life, creates a mind that's angry at fate. You start complaining constantly about the times you live in. You retreat into isolation and brood over how miserable you are, until you become sick of yourself. The human mind naturally wants to move and stay active. It loves any chance to get excited and forget about itself. The worse someone's character is, the more they crave this kind of distraction. They want to exhaust themselves with frantic activity, like how infected wounds crave the very hands that hurt them, or how a rash enjoys being scratched.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 19 of 100
Calm Your Mind Human Nature
Seneca — The Senator Original

This dislike of other men's progress and despair of one's own produces a mind angered against fortune, addicted to complaining of the age in which it lives, to retiring into corners and brooding over its misery, until it becomes sick and weary of itself: for the human mind is naturally nimble and apt at movement: it delights in every opportunity of excitement and forgetfulness of itself, and the worse a man's disposition the more he delights in this, because he likes to wear himself out with busy action, just as some sores long for the hands that injure them and delight in being touched, and the foul itch enjoys anything that scratches it.

On Peace of Mind, Section 2 19 of 100
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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