Why choose unhappiness? Seneca, Epistles 2.21.1

What keeps us from happiness? We would have to lose something to get her. Can we release the glamor of the unhappy life before its darkness swallows us?

Cum istis tibi esse negotium iudicas de quibus scripseras? Maximum negotium tecum habes, tu tibi molestus es. Quid velis nescis, melius probas honesta quam sequeris, vides ubi sit posita felicitas sed ad illam pervenire non audes. Quid sit autem quod te impediat, quia parum ipse dispicis, dicam: magna esse haec existimas quae relicturus es, et cum proposuisti tibi illam securitatem ad quam transiturus es, retinet te huius vitae a qua recessurus es fulgor tamquam in sordida et obscura casurum.

Do you suppose your beef is really with those blokes you wrote about? The biggest beef you have is with yourself: you are your own ball and chain. Unaware of what you want, you approve what is good rather than follow after it. You see where happiness sits, but never dare approach her. As you are not quite capable of distinguishing what impedes your access, I will tell you. On the brink of greeting her, you deem great the things you are about to leave behind, and even when you have managed to get a clear view of the safety you stand to enter into, the glamor of the life you are renouncing holds you back, though your prospects there must dwindle into sordid darkness.