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Full Idea
To be always happy and to pass through life without any mental distress is to lack knowledge of one half of nature.
Gist of Idea
To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature
Source
Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §4)
Book Ref
Seneca: 'Dialogues and Essays', ed/tr. Davie,John [Penguin 2007], p.10
A Reaction
These kind of paradoxes plague virtue theory, and any theory which aims at an ideal. Heaven, for example, seems to have no problems to solve, which spells boredom. The fascination of corrupt people is their superior knowledge of the world.
| 13548 | The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca] |
| 13549 | Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca] |
| 13550 | To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca] |