Hi! Welcome to “Dusty Phrases.” You will find a phrase below, in one ancient language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.
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Latin:
Sustine et abstine
English:
Endure and renounce; or
Hold back and stay away
This phrase is one of the stoic maxims and it concerns how one should deal with emotions or passions. Endure pain that cannot be avoided. Stay away from pleasure that might ensnare and enslave you. The idea is that one is better off as the master of his feelings.
via wiki:
Sustine et abstine is a Latin phrase meaning “endure and renounce.” Attributed to Epictetus, it is the maxim of the Stoics. Stoicism focused on man’s problems, defending the search for inner balance, which is achieved through autarky and self-sufficiency, as the best solution to life. The most precious good for man is happiness, which they find in the exercise of virtue, in the figure of the moderate man, who dominates his passions. For Epictetus, the role of the philosopher is to practice the contemplative life, centered on the notion of eudaimonia (happiness), which is a product of virtue, defined by life according to reason. In addition to self-knowledge, the virtue of Stoic reason consists of ataraxia (imperturbability) and apathy (dispassion).
Thus, the phrase that sums up the Stoic doctrine can be understood as “endure pain and renounce pleasure”, the two extremes of human feeling, in order to achieve the right balance where reason shines. It is necessary to free oneself from both passions and fears, to be indifferent to pain as well as pleasure, in order to attain serenity of mind, imperturbability.
