M. To me such are the only men who appear completely happy; for what can he want to complete a happy life who relies on his own good qualities, or how can he be happy who does not rely on them?
But he who makes a threefold division of goods must necessarily be diffident, for how can he depend on having a sound body, or that his fortune shall continue? But no one can be happy without an immovable, fixed, and permanent good.
What, then, is this opinion of theirs? So that I think that saying of the Spartan may be applied to them, who, on some merchant’s boasting before him that he had dispatched ships to every maritime coast, replied that a fortune which depended on ropes was not very desirable.
Can there be any doubt that whatever may be lost cannot be properly classed in the number of those things which complete a happy life? For of all that constitutes a happy life, nothing will admit of withering, or growing old, or wearing out, or decaying; for whoever is apprehensive of any loss of these things cannot be happy: the happy man should be safe, well-fenced, well-fortified, out of the reach of all annoyance, not like a man under trifling apprehensions, but free from all such.
As he is not called innocent who but slightly offends, but he who offends not at all, so it is he alone who is to be considered without fear who is free from all fear, not he who is but in little fear. For what else is courage but an affection of mind that is ready to undergo perils, and patient in the endurance of pain and labor without any alloy of fear?
Now, this certainly could not be the case if there were anything else good but what depended on honesty alone. But how can anyone be in possession of that desirable and much-coveted security (for I now call a freedom from anxiety a security, on which freedom a happy life depends) who has, or may have, a multitude of evils attending him? How can he be brave and undaunted, and hold everything as trifles which can befall a man? Or so a wise man should do, unless he be one who thinks that everything depends on himself.
Could the Lacedaemonians without this, when Philip threatened to prevent all their attempts, have asked him if he could prevent their killing themselves? Is it not easier, then, to find one man of such a spirit as we are inquiring after, than to meet with a whole city of such men?
Now, if to this courage I am speaking of we add temperance, that it may govern all our feelings and agitations, what can be wanting to complete his happiness who is secured by his courage from uneasiness and fear, and is prevented from immoderate desires and immoderate insolence of joy by temperance? I could easily show that virtue is able to produce these effects, but that I have explained on the foregoing days.
But he who makes a threefold division of goods must necessarily be diffident, for how can he depend on having a sound body, or that his fortune shall continue? But no one can be happy without an immovable, fixed, and permanent good.
What, then, is this opinion of theirs? So that I think that saying of the Spartan may be applied to them, who, on some merchant’s boasting before him that he had dispatched ships to every maritime coast, replied that a fortune which depended on ropes was not very desirable.
Can there be any doubt that whatever may be lost cannot be properly classed in the number of those things which complete a happy life? For of all that constitutes a happy life, nothing will admit of withering, or growing old, or wearing out, or decaying; for whoever is apprehensive of any loss of these things cannot be happy: the happy man should be safe, well-fenced, well-fortified, out of the reach of all annoyance, not like a man under trifling apprehensions, but free from all such.
As he is not called innocent who but slightly offends, but he who offends not at all, so it is he alone who is to be considered without fear who is free from all fear, not he who is but in little fear. For what else is courage but an affection of mind that is ready to undergo perils, and patient in the endurance of pain and labor without any alloy of fear?
Now, this certainly could not be the case if there were anything else good but what depended on honesty alone. But how can anyone be in possession of that desirable and much-coveted security (for I now call a freedom from anxiety a security, on which freedom a happy life depends) who has, or may have, a multitude of evils attending him? How can he be brave and undaunted, and hold everything as trifles which can befall a man? Or so a wise man should do, unless he be one who thinks that everything depends on himself.
Could the Lacedaemonians without this, when Philip threatened to prevent all their attempts, have asked him if he could prevent their killing themselves? Is it not easier, then, to find one man of such a spirit as we are inquiring after, than to meet with a whole city of such men?
Now, if to this courage I am speaking of we add temperance, that it may govern all our feelings and agitations, what can be wanting to complete his happiness who is secured by his courage from uneasiness and fear, and is prevented from immoderate desires and immoderate insolence of joy by temperance? I could easily show that virtue is able to produce these effects, but that I have explained on the foregoing days.
—from Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.14
In workaday language, people often say that they’re happy when they’re satisfied, which is quite correct, even if it demands that we consider how to align what we might want with what we really need. To know what will make us content requires an understanding of what will perfect our very nature, and it’s that last bit that too often gets overlooked.
I was first exposed to such insights by Aristotle instead of Plato, but in this regard, at least, the two approaches are in broad agreement. There was a moment of remarkable clarity when I read why the end of happiness had to be both complete, to which nothing more can be added, and self-sufficient, depending upon what we do, not upon what is done to us. I was equally ashamed and relieved to learn how I had failed to set myself a well-founded standard, which had led to much desperate grasping, with little sense of what was actually worth keeping.
If I achieve some worldly triumph, and yet I still remain restless, it is not doing what is necessary, for there remains more to be desired. If I find myself in some favorable circumstances, and yet I still feel empty, it is likely a reliance on the actions of others, and not about my own merits.
I have sought to increase the quantity of the wrong sort of qualities, feeding the belly with dishes that cannot sustain me. I remain wretched because I am ignorant of my true good, and the change must come from my attitude, not from imposing my demands on the world.
To place the human good in a medley of sources is to dilute the essential with the accidental, confusing my own nature with the nature of everything else. While the conditions of fortune and of the body will set the stage, it is the soul that must play the part. It is for this reason that the Stoic does not properly speak of the circumstances as good or bad in themselves, only becoming good or bad through the influence of our judgments.
If it does not offer me fulfillment, it isn’t worth chasing, and if it can be taken from me, it isn’t mine to begin with. Once I can achieve such an estimation, I will cease to complain about how the bully is trampling on my rights. He has lost so much of himself, and I can maintain the one thing within myself that matters.
Though I am not terribly impressed by the machismo of the Spartans, I do believe that their curt responses to decadent scoundrels confirm a sincere presence of character. Pity the man whose happiness relies on the strength of a few ropes, and do not be intimated by the man who threatens to destroy your lands, for he has no power over the way you choose to live and to die. I also seem to recall a story about Lycurgus claiming that his city did not need walls of stone, as it relied upon walls of men.
Genuine courage is concerned with a solid conscience, not with a display of boastfulness. As extraordinary as it may seem, the aim is to banish fear by going straight to the source of judgements about benefit and harm, not to repress or to merely minimize fear by setting up distractions.
Genuine temperance is concerned with a serene mastery of self, not with severe pontification. As extraordinary as it may seem, the aim is to soothe desire by going straight to the source of judgments about pleasure and pain, not to stifle or to merely conceal desire by putting on an act.
Conviction and integrity make it possible. Our terrors and lusts will decrease in their influence, slowly but surely, as our virtues of constancy and moderation increase from habit, day by day.
In workaday language, people often say that they’re happy when they’re satisfied, which is quite correct, even if it demands that we consider how to align what we might want with what we really need. To know what will make us content requires an understanding of what will perfect our very nature, and it’s that last bit that too often gets overlooked.
I was first exposed to such insights by Aristotle instead of Plato, but in this regard, at least, the two approaches are in broad agreement. There was a moment of remarkable clarity when I read why the end of happiness had to be both complete, to which nothing more can be added, and self-sufficient, depending upon what we do, not upon what is done to us. I was equally ashamed and relieved to learn how I had failed to set myself a well-founded standard, which had led to much desperate grasping, with little sense of what was actually worth keeping.
If I achieve some worldly triumph, and yet I still remain restless, it is not doing what is necessary, for there remains more to be desired. If I find myself in some favorable circumstances, and yet I still feel empty, it is likely a reliance on the actions of others, and not about my own merits.
I have sought to increase the quantity of the wrong sort of qualities, feeding the belly with dishes that cannot sustain me. I remain wretched because I am ignorant of my true good, and the change must come from my attitude, not from imposing my demands on the world.
To place the human good in a medley of sources is to dilute the essential with the accidental, confusing my own nature with the nature of everything else. While the conditions of fortune and of the body will set the stage, it is the soul that must play the part. It is for this reason that the Stoic does not properly speak of the circumstances as good or bad in themselves, only becoming good or bad through the influence of our judgments.
If it does not offer me fulfillment, it isn’t worth chasing, and if it can be taken from me, it isn’t mine to begin with. Once I can achieve such an estimation, I will cease to complain about how the bully is trampling on my rights. He has lost so much of himself, and I can maintain the one thing within myself that matters.
Though I am not terribly impressed by the machismo of the Spartans, I do believe that their curt responses to decadent scoundrels confirm a sincere presence of character. Pity the man whose happiness relies on the strength of a few ropes, and do not be intimated by the man who threatens to destroy your lands, for he has no power over the way you choose to live and to die. I also seem to recall a story about Lycurgus claiming that his city did not need walls of stone, as it relied upon walls of men.
Genuine courage is concerned with a solid conscience, not with a display of boastfulness. As extraordinary as it may seem, the aim is to banish fear by going straight to the source of judgements about benefit and harm, not to repress or to merely minimize fear by setting up distractions.
Genuine temperance is concerned with a serene mastery of self, not with severe pontification. As extraordinary as it may seem, the aim is to soothe desire by going straight to the source of judgments about pleasure and pain, not to stifle or to merely conceal desire by putting on an act.
Conviction and integrity make it possible. Our terrors and lusts will decrease in their influence, slowly but surely, as our virtues of constancy and moderation increase from habit, day by day.
—Reflection written in 2/1999
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