On Benefits 2.5 ¶1–6 — Seneca

Seneca, On Benefits 2.5 ¶1–6

Nothing is more bitter than long uncertainty; some can bear to have their hopes extinguished better than to have them deferred. Yet many men are led by an unworthy vanity into this fault of putting off the accomplishment of their promises, merely in order to swell the crowd of their suitors, like the ministers of royalty, who delight in prolonging the display of their own arrogance, hardly thinking themselves possessed of power unless they let each man see for a long time how powerful they are. They do nothing promptly, or at one sitting; they are indeed swift to do mischief, but slow to do good. Be sure that the comic poet speaks the most absolute truth in the verses:— “Know you not this? If you your gifts delay, You take thereby my gratitude away.” And the following lines, the expression of virtuous pain—a high-spirited man’s misery— “What thou doest, do quickly;” and:— “Nothing in the world Is worth this trouble; I had rather you Refused it to me now.”