Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
- Source
- Letters to Lucilius
- Date
- c. 65
- English wording
- Richard M. Gummere — Translator · from Latin
Meaning of “We suffer more often in imagination than in…”
The line distinguishes anticipated suffering from what is actually happening, challenging imagination when it magnifies uncertainty.
Where does it come from?
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 4, Richard M. Gummere translation. 'We suffer more often in imagination than in reality' occurs in 'On Groundless Fears' as Seneca distinguishes feared possibilities from harms that have actually arrived. It remains Roman Stoic moral counsel rather than modern anxiety-treatment or clinical evidence.
