O miserable minds (Lucretius)
O miserable minds of men! O hearts that cannot see!
Beset by such great dangers and in such obscurity
You spend your little lot of life! Don't you know it's plain
That all your nature yelps for is a body free from pain,
And, to enjoy pleasure, a mind removed from fear and care?
And so we see the body's needs are altogether spare—
Only the bare minimum to keep suffering at bay,
Yet which can furnish pleasures for us in a wide array.
Lucretius (A. E. Stallings, trans.),
The Nature of Things
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