Book 4, Chapter 16
Original Latin
Quid autem est non miserius solum, sed foedius etiam et deformius quam aegritudine quis adflictus debilitatus iacens? cui miseriae proxumus est is qui adpropinquans aliquod malum metuit exanimatusque pendet animi. quam vim mali significantes poëtae impendere apud inferos saxum Tantalo faciunt ‘ob scelera animique inpotentiam et superbiloquentiam.’ ea communis poena stultitiae est. omnibus enim, quorum mens abhorret a ratione, semper aliqui talis terror impendet.
36 atque ut haec tabificae mentis perturbationes sunt, aegritudinem dico et metum, sic hilariores illae, cupiditas avide semper aliquid expetens et inanis alacritas, id est laetitia gestiens, non multum differunt ab amentia. ex quo intellegitur, qualis ille sit, quem tum moderatum, alias modestum temperantem, alias constantem continentemque dicimus; non numquam haec eadem vocabula ad frugalitatis nomen tamquam ad caput referre volumus. quodnisi eo nomine virtutes continerentur, numquam ita pervolgatum illud esset, ut iam proverbii locum optineret, ‘hominem frugi omnia recte facere’. quod idem cum Stoici de sapiente dicunt, nimis admirabiliter nimisque magnifice dicere videntur.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted translation from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
“What can be not only more miserable but more foul and disfiguring than a person crushed by distress, weakened, and laid low? Nearest to him in misery is the person who fears some approaching evil and hangs in suspense, his spirit undone. To convey the force of this evil, the poets picture a stone hanging over Tantalus in the underworld ‘for his crimes, his ungoverned soul, and his boastful speech.’ This is the common punishment of folly. Some terror of this kind always hangs over everyone whose mind turns away from reason.
36 “And just as these disturbances—distress and fear, I mean—waste the mind away, so those more cheerful ones, desire always greedily seeking something and empty excitement, that is, exuberant delight, differ little from madness. From this we understand the character of the person we call sometimes moderate, sometimes modest and temperate, sometimes steady and self-controlled. At times we choose to bring these same terms under the one heading of sound character. Unless that name embraced the virtues, the saying ‘a person of sound character does everything rightly’ would never have become so common as to rank as a proverb. Yet when the Stoics say the same thing about the wise person, their words seem too astonishing and too grand.”
Plain English translation
Complete independent machine-assisted translation directly from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
“What could be not only more miserable but also uglier and more shameful than a person lying broken and helpless with distress? Next in misery is someone who fears an approaching evil and hangs in suspense, frightened out of their wits. To show the power of this evil, the poets place a rock hanging over Tantalus in the underworld, ‘for crimes, an uncontrolled spirit, and arrogant talk.’ That’s the common punishment of foolishness. Everyone whose mind turns away from reason always has some such terror hanging over them.
36 “Fear and distress are the disturbances I mean that eat the mind away. Their cheerful counterparts come close to madness too: desire forever reaching greedily for something, and baseless excitement, or unrestrained delight. We can now see the character of someone we describe at different times as moderate, modest, self-controlled, steady, or restrained. Sometimes we group all these descriptions under the general heading ‘sound character.’ That heading must include the virtues; otherwise, ‘The person of sound character does everything right’ wouldn’t have become a saying so widespread it counts as a proverb. The Stoics say exactly this of the wise person, yet people hear their claim as astonishing and far too grand.”
About this section
Book 4, Chapter 16 is part of Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 126 of 189 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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