Meditations VII.33

Of Pain: When unbearable it destroys us, when lasting, it is bearable,⁴⁵ and the mind safeguards its own calm by withdrawing itself, and the ruling Reason takes no hurt. As to the parts that are impaired by the pain, let them say their say about it as they can.⁴⁶

• 45.vii. 16, 64. Compare Aeschylus, Fragment 310: θάρσει πόνου γὰρ ἄκρον οὐκ ἔχει χρόνον; Diogenes Laertius, Life of Epicurus xxxi. 4.

  Aeschylus was the earliest of the three great Athenian tragedians; the Greek, in translation: “take heart, for the height of pain lasts no time.” The Epicurean doctrine is that severe pain is brief and lasting pain is mild.

• 46.See vii. 14; viii. 40.