There is pleasure in sitting on the shore and watching another struggle against the harsh trials of the boundless sea, as the winds raise the waves and make the waters rage.

Not, of course, because we delight in another persons suffering, but because it is sweet to see from what troubles we ourselves have escaped.

Just as it is pleasant to watch the fierce battles raging across the plains, without being touched by danger.

O wretched human minds, O blinded hearts!

Through what darkness, through what dangers, does this brief span of your lives pass!

Do you not hear Natures cry, proclaiming her desire that every pain should depart from the body and that the mind should experience happiness, free from worries and anxieties?

We see that the body needs very little.

Anything that removes pain can also provide many pleasures. Nature herself asks for nothing more.

If our house does not contain golden statues of young men holding burning torches in their right hands to illuminate our nocturnal feasts, if our home does not glitter with silver and gold, if lyres do not echo through richly decorated halls, we are content to lie upon the tender grass, with friends among friends, beside a river, beneath the shady branches of a great tree.

It is enough for us to enjoy ourselves at little expense, especially when the weather smiles upon us and the season scatters flowers across the green grass.

A burning fever does not leave the body more quickly when it lies upon embroidered couches and crimson-purple coverings than when it rests upon a poor and humble bed.

And since wealth, noble birth and the glory of a throne are of no benefit to the body, we must recognise that they offer no true benefit to the mind either.

When you watch your legions performing their military exercises on the Field of Mars and advancing in powerful formations, or when you observe your fleet manoeuvring across the open sea, will your superstitious fears suddenly disappear? Will the fear of death leave your soul, setting it free from anxiety?

No. For neither armies nor fleets, neither riches nor power, can liberate the human spirit from its deepest fears.