Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶41 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
From “On Grief of Mind”
Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶41
Therefore it is in our own power to lay aside grief upon occasion. And is there any opportunity (seeing the thing is in our own power) that we should let slip of getting rid of care and grief? It was plain that the friends of Cnaeus Pompeius, when they saw him fainting under his wounds, at the very moment of that most miserable and bitter sight were under great uneasiness how they themselves, surrounded by the enemy as they were, should escape, and were employed in nothing but encouraging the rowers and aiding their escape; but when they reached Tyre, they began to grieve and lament over him. Therefore, as fear with them prevailed over grief, cannot reason and true philosophy have the same effect with a wise man?
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 3 ¶41, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/3.41
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGrief can be put down when the situation demands it, as the friends of the wounded Pompey showed by concentrating on escape and only mourning once they were safe. If fear can override grief that easily, reason should be able to do the same.
Themes and situations
- Grief and mourning
- What is in our control
- Fear and anxiety
- Emotions and the passions
- Bereavement
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