The Affections Of The Soul

Plutarch, Moralia, Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores = Whether the Affections of the Soul are Worse than Those of the Body = ΠΟΤΕΡΟΝ ΤΑ ΤΗΣ ΨΥΧΗΣ Η ΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΣΩΜΑΤΟΣ ΠΑΘΗ ΧΕΙΡΟΝΑ​, 501C-E, tr. W. C. Helmbold (Loeb edition, vol. VI):

It is true that one who is sick in body gives in at once and goes to bed and remains quiet while he is being cured, and if, perchance, when the fever comes upon him, he tosses a bit and tumbles his body about, one of those who sit by him will say to him gently,

Lie still, poor wretch, and move not from your bed,​

[Euripides, Orestes, 258]

and so checks and restrains him; but those who suffer from diseases of the soul are then most active, then least at rest. For impulses are the beginning of action, and the soul's abnormal states are violent impulses. That is the reason why they do not allow the soul to be at rest, but just at the time when man most needs repose and silence and relaxation, then his fits of temper, of contentiousness, of love, or grief, drag him into the open air and strip him bare, and he is forced both to do many lawless things and to give tongue to many things unsuited to the occasion.

As, therefore, the storm that prevents a sailor from putting into port is more dangerous than that which does not allow him to sail, so those storms of the soul are more serious which do not allow a man to compose or to calm his disturbed reason; but pilotless and without ballast, in confusion and aimless wandering, rushing headlong in oblique and reeling courses, he suffers a terrible shipwreck, as it were, and ruins his life. Consequently for this reason also it is worse to be sick in soul than in body; for men afflicted in body only suffer, but those afflicted in soul both suffer and do ill.

Καὶ γὰρ ὁ μὲν τῷ σώματι νοσῶν εὐθὺς ἐνδοὺς καὶ καθεὶς ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ κλινίδιον ἡσυχίαν ἄγει θεραπευόμενος, ἂν δέ που μικρὸν ἐξᾴξῃ​ καὶ διασκιρτήσῃ τὸ σῶμα φλεγμονῆς προσπεσούσης, εἰπών τις τῶν παρακαθημένων πράως,

μέν’, ὦ ταλαίπωρ’, ἀτρέμα σοῖς ἐν δεμνίοις,

ἐπέστησε καὶ κατέσχεν. οἱ δ’ ἐν τοῖς ψυχικοῖς πάθεσιν ὄντες τότε μάλιστα πράττουσι, τόθ’ ἥκισθ’ ἡσυχάζουσιν· αἱ γὰρ ὁρμαὶ τῶν πράξεων ἀρχή,​ τὰ δὲ πάθη σφοδρότητες ὁρμῶνδιὸ τὴν ψυχὴν ἠρεμεῖν οὐκ ἐῶσιν, ἀλλ’ ὅτε μάλιστα δεῖται μονῆς καὶ σιωπῆς καὶ ὑποστολῆς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τότ’ αὐτὸν εἰς ὕπαιθρον ἕλκουσι, τότ’ ἀποκαλύπτουσιν οἱ θυμοί, αἱ φιλονεικίαι, οἱ ἔρωτες, αἱ λῦπαι, πολλὰ καὶ δρᾶν ἄνομα καὶ λαλεῖν ἀνάρμοστα τοῖς καιροῖς ἀναγκαζόμενον.

Ὥσπερ οὖν ἐπισφαλέστερος χειμὸν τοῦ πλεῖν οὐκ ἐῶντος ὁ κωλύων καθορμίσασθαι, οὕτως οἱ κατὰ ψυχὴν χειμῶνες βαρύτεροι στείλασθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἐῶντες οὐδ’ ἐπιστῆσαι τεταραγμένον τὸν λογισμόν· ἀλλ’ ἀκυβέρνητος καὶ ἀνερμάτιστος ἐν ταραχῇ καὶ πλάνῃ δρόμοις λεχρίοις​ καὶ παραφόροις διατραχηλιζόμενος εἴς τι ναυάγιον φοβερὸν ἐξέπεσε καὶ συνέτριψε τὸν ἑαυτοῦ βίον. ὥστε καὶ ταύτῃ χεῖρον νοσεῖν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἢ τοῖς σώμασιν· τοῖς μὲν γὰρ πάσχειν μόνον τοῖς δὲ καὶ πάσχειν καὶ ποιεῖν κακῶς συμβέβηκε.