Tormented

In contrast to the animals, who “avoid the dangers which they see, and when they have escaped them are free from care,” human beings “torment ourselves over that which is to come as well as over that or which is past.” “Many of our blessings,” Seneca continues, “bring bane to us; for memory recalls the tortures of fear, while foresight anticipates them” (Ep. 5.9). We are thus hemmed in from before and behind. We have only one space in which to live free of fear in the face of Fortuna’s power: it is “the present alone” that “makes no man wretched” (Ep. 5.9).”—One True Life: The Stoics and Early Christians as Rival Traditions, 25

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Again you can see the intersections with Christian thought. It's easy to understand why Stoicism was attractive and Christians raided from its thought. But, again, the differences are greater than the similarities, as we'll see in the next post.
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