What do you mean when you say, “Man is weak”?  The term weak implies a relation, a relation of the creature to whom it is applied.  An insect or a worm whose strength exceeds its needs is strong; an elephant, a lion, a conqueror, a hero, a god himself, whose needs exceed his strength is weak.  The rebellious angel who fought against his own nature was weaker than the happy mortal who is living at peace according to nature.  When man is content to be himself he is strong indeed; when he strives to be more than man he is weak indeed.  But do not imagine that you can increase your strength by increasing your powers.  Not so; if your pride increases more rapidly your strength is diminished.  Let us measure the extent of our sphere and remain in its centre like the spider in its web; we shall have strength sufficient for our needs, we shall have no cause to lament our weakness, for we shall never be aware of it.

The other animals possess only such powers as are required for self-preservation; man alone has more.  Is it not very strange that this superfluity should make him miserable?  In every land a man’s labour yields more than a bare living.  If he were wise enough to disregard this surplus he would always have enough, for he would never have too much.  “Great needs,” said Favorin, “spring from great wealth; and often the best way of getting what we want is to get rid of what we have.”  By striving to increase our happiness we change it into wretchedness.  If a man were content to live, he would live happy; and he would therefore be good, for what would he have to gain by vice?

If we were immortal we should all be miserable; no doubt it is hard to die, but it is sweet to think that we shall not live for ever, and that a better life will put an end to the sorrows of this world.  If we had the offer of immortality here below, who would accept the sorrowful gift? [Footnote:  You understand I am speaking of those who think, and not of the crowd.] What resources, what hopes, what consolation would be left against the cruelties of fate and man’s injustice?  The ignorant man never looks before; he knows little of the value of life and does not fear to lose it; the wise man sees things of greater worth and prefers them to it.  Half knowledge and sham wisdom set us thinking about death and what lies beyond it; and they thus create the worst of our ills.  The wise man bears life’s ills all the better because he knows he must die.  Life would be too dearly bought did we not know that sooner or later death will end it.

Our moral ills are the result of prejudice, crime alone excepted, and that depends on ourselves; our bodily ills either put an end to themselves or to us.  Time or death will cure them, but the less we know how to bear it, the greater is our pain, and we suffer more in our efforts to cure our diseases than if we endured them.  Live according to nature; be patient, get rid of the doctors; you will not escape