A man is as wretched as he has convinced himself that he is.
Seneca Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 78, On the Healing Power of the Mind (65 CE) Translated by Richard Mott Gummere
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- From Seneca's seventy-eighth letter to Lucilius, written while Lucilius was ill.
- Why
- Seneca is encouraging a sick friend not to add complaint to pain.
What it means
Seneca does not deny that illness hurts. He points at the story we tell about it, which can make the same pain heavier or lighter.
The sentence is an invitation to notice the story, not a demand to stop feeling.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Moral Letters to Lucilius, 65 CE
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