The misfortune to love our own decay

Awaiting the end, let's grow ourselves,
cultivating noble sentiments.
A being with noble sentiments
does not take pleasure in petty things.
It is the beauty of the great truths
that attracts and exalts him.
As the flame is lifted upward
its nature is not crawling on the ground.

The flame is never quiet
and so also our spirit
must be in constant motion.
The more agile and active it is,
the greater shall be its heat.
Who flies high, driven by the flame,
is oblivious to the mediocre things
admired by the ordinary people.

It is the virtue of a pure soul
to despise the delusions of grandeur
and prefer moderation to excess.
Overloaded branches are soon broken.
Excess does not leave fruit to mature.
Unrestrained prosperity generates rot
as decayed minds corrupt others
before they destroy themselves.

Unbridled passions are our enemies.
Humanity suffers the consequences of desires
beyond the limits of nature,
immeasurable, uncontrollable, ultimately fatal.
Moderation respects the limits of nature
while the passion for power is boundless.
It has no criterion to measure the superfluous.
What is needed is the bare essentials,
the right quantity necessary for our survival.

An uncontrollable passion can become a habit,
a vice we can not do without.
Whereupon, what once gave pleasure to us, will make us unhappy,
since we believe that the superfluous to be necessary.
But you can't enjoy pleasure, if you're a slave to it.
The worst misfortune is to love our own decay
when we find attractive only abhorrent things.

And there is no remedy.
If we confuse the vice with virtue,
the good with
the evil.


This writing is inspired by thoughts of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. A very wise man. Who had the misfortune of being the adviser of Nero.
His honesty and integrity gave discomfort to the emperor and his court of Hookers and vampires, resulting in the exile and finally the death of the philosopher.