Key ideas

Sometimes we despair o the human race.

Even so, it is better to laugh at the human folly than to despair of it.

Take a lighter view of things.

Best of all, there is no need to laugh or to despair. It is best not to follow custom but do what reason asks us to do.

Sometimes we despair of human actions

When times are tough, we despair of human actions. However, we gain nothing by getting rid of everything that causes sadness.

There are times when we hate the human race. When you reflect on how rare simplicity is, how unknown innocence is, how seldom faith is kept unless it is to one’s advantage, so many successful crimes, and on equally hateful profits and losses of lust, ambition so impatient even to be contained in its own natural limits that it is willing to buy distinction through corrupt means, then the mind is plunged into darkness.

It is as though the virtues were all overthrown, and we are no longer allowed to hope to have them or benefit from them.

Think of human actions as folly

We must therefore persuade ourselves of the view that all the vices of the vulgar may not appear hateful to us, but merely ridiculous. We should take Democritus [known as the ‘laughing philosopher’] rather than Heraclitus [known as the ‘weeping philosopher’] as our role model. Heraclitus, whenever he appeared in public, used to weep, regarding all human actions as misery. But Democritus would regard them as folly.

Take a lighter view of things

We must take a lighter view of all things, tolerating and accepting them. It is more human to laugh than to weep over them. Also, the human race owes more to the one who laughs than the one who mourns for it. The one who laughs provides a measure of optimism while the one who weeps does so foolishly, giving up all hopes of remedying things.

Laughing is better than weeping

When surveying the world, the person who cannot control her laughter shows a greater mind than the one who cannot control his tears. Her mind is only affected to the slightest possible degree. She does not think that any part of this is important, or serious, or miserable in the grand scheme of things. As for the several causes that make us happy or sad, let everyone figure it out for themselves.

Let them learn the truth of Bion's saying that all human actions are just like their beginnings. There is nothing in our lives which is more holy or decent than their conception. They were born in nothingness and will return to nothingness.

It’s best neither to laugh nor to weep

But it is better to accept human morals and vices calmly without bursting into either laughter or tears. To be hurt by the sufferings of others is to be forever miserable. To enjoy the sufferings of others is an inhuman pleasure, just as it is useless to weep and look sad because someone is burying his son.

Even where personal misfortunes are concerned, one should show as much sorrow as reason—not custom—demands. Many shed tears for show. When no one is looking at them, their eyes are dry. They think it disgraceful not to weep when everyone does so. This evil of being guided by other people’s opinions has become so deeply rooted in us that even grief, the simplest of all emotions, has become an affectation.

Think about this

This evil of being guided by other people’s opinions has become so deeply rooted in us that even grief, the simplest of all emotions, has become an affectation.
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This is the plain English version of Chapter 15 of Seneca’s work On Tranquillity.

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