"It's ruinous for the soul to be anxious about the future and miserable in advance of misery, engulfed by anxiety that the things it desires might remain its own until the very end. For such a soul will never be at rest-by longing for things to come it will lose the ability to enjoy present things."-SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 98.5b-6a
(“미래에 대한 불안으로 영혼이 고통을 겪는 것은 비참한 일입니다. 아직 발생하지 않은 고통에 사로잡혀 원하는 것을 얻으려는 영혼은 끝까지 고통 속에남을 것입니다. 그런 영혼은 앞으로 일어날 일을 그리워하다가 현재를 즐길 수 있는 능력을 잃게 될 것입니다.”-세네카, 『도덕적 서한』, 98.5-6a)
The way we nervously worry about some looming bad news is strange if you think about it. By definition, the waiting means it hasn't happened yet, so that feeling bad in advance is totally voluntary. But that's what we do: chewing our nails, feeling sick to our stomachs, rudely brushing aside the people around us. Why? Because something bad might occur soon.
The pragmatist, the person of action, is too busy to waste time on such silliness. The pragmatist can't worry about every possible outcome in advance. Think about it. Best case scenario-if the news turns out to be better than expected, all this time was wasted with needless fear. Worst case scenario-we were miserable for ...
