Facesse Stoica plebs
The Rejection of Stoic Apathy
The author rejects the cold, unfeeling nature of Stoic philosophy which denies the legitimacy of human grief.
Be gone, you Stoic crowd, walking among the rocks, stripped of the flesh's covering, consisting only of bones—and those so dry that even a Molossian hound wouldn't find three cents' worth of meat on them—are you forbidding me to feel pain? Or are you forbidding me to grieve for a people so dull, so leaden, so Medusa-like, dragging human nature down to the level of stones, and for the best of them, Pyrrha, who is so much the worse?
The Natural Heart
Even the fiercest creatures possess a maternal instinct, leading the author to choose mercy over anger.
But you aren't so foolish as to usually destroy a mother; in fact, you can't, for even a tigress has given birth to her. Therefore, I spare the beasts, and I don't get angry.
Read the original Latin
Facesse Stoica plebs, obambulans cautes, Exuta strato carnis, ossibus constans, Iisque siccis, adeo ut os Molossorum Haud glubat inde tres teruncios escae, Dolere prohibes? aut dolere me gentis Adeo inficetae, plumbeae, Meduseae, Ad saxa speciem retrahentis humanam, Tantoque nequioris optima Pirrha. At forte Matrem perdere haud soles demens: Quin nec potes; cui praebuit tigris partum. Proinde parco belluis, nec irascor.
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