My Stoic meditation for today - that the sapiens considers all adversities to be mere exercises and training set for him by Providence:
“No evil can befall a good man; opposites do not mingle. Just as the countless rivers, the vast fall of rain from the sky, the huge volume of mineral springs do not change the taste of the sea, do not even modify it, so the assaults of adversity do not weaken the spirit of a brave man. It always maintains its poise, and it gives its own colour to everything that happens; for it is mightier than external things. And yet I do not mean to say that the brave man is insensible to these, but that he overcomes them, and being in all else unmoved and calm rises to meet whatever assails him. All his adversities he counts mere training.” – Seneca, De Providentia, II.1-2
“Nihil accidere bono viro mali potest; non miscentur contraria. Quemadmodum tot amnes, tantum superne deiectorum imbrium, tanta medicatorum vis fontium non mutant saporem maris, ne remittunt quidem, ita adversarum impetus rerum viri fortis non vertit animum. Manet in statu et quicquid evenit in suum colorem trahit; est enim omnibus externis potentior. Nec hoc dico: non sentit illa, sed vincit et alioqui quietus placidusque contra incurrentia attollitur. Omnia adverse exercitationes putat.”
Reposted from "Florilegium Sapientiae"
a.d. IV Idus Iunias anno A.U.C. MMDCCLXV (Cn. Caesare C. Tullio consulibus)
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