Letters 110.6

Let us account it worth while to look closely at the matter; then it will be clear how fleeting, how unsure, and how harmless are the things which we fear. The disturbance in our spirits is similar to that which Lucretius detected:

Like boys who cower frightened in the dark, So grown-ups in the light of day feel fear.

What, then? Are we not more foolish than any child, we who “in the light of day feel fear”?

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 110.6, translated by Richard Mott Gummere