"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."
— Seneca
It Is Not Because Things Are
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.
About this quote
From one of the later Letters to Lucilius, written in the final years of Seneca's life (circa 64-65 AD), as Nero's reign grew increasingly tyrannical. Letter 104 addresses the relationship between fear and difficulty, inverting the common assumption that courage follows from easy circumstances. The observation echoes a core Stoic principle also found in Epictetus: that our judgments about events, not the events themselves, determine our experience.
Source
Letters to Lucilius, Letter 104
