Unmask your fears. Seneca, Epistles 3.24.11-14

Seneca advises Lucilius to unmask his fears, to recognize that people all around him are constantly bearing death and pain nobly, easily, even contemptuously, as part of their normal existence. If they can do it, he can, too.

Mihi crede, Lucili, adeo mors timenda non est ut beneficio eius nihil anteferendum sit. Securus itaque inimici minas audi; et quamvis conscientia tibi tua fiduciam faciat, tamen, quia multa extra causam valent, et quod aequissimum est spera et ad id te quod est iniquissimum compara. Illud autem ante omnia memento, demere rebus tumultum ac videre quid in quaque re sit: scies nihil esse in istis terribile nisi ipsum timorem. Quod vides accidere pueris, hoc nobis quoque maiusculis pueris evenit: illi quos amant, quibus assueverunt, cum quibus ludunt, si personatos vident, expavescunt: non hominibus tantum sed rebus persona demenda est et reddenda facies sua.

Quid mihi gladios et ignes ostendis et turbam carnificum circa te frementem? Tolle istam pompam sub qua lates et stultos territas: mors es, quam nuper servus meus, quam ancilla contempsit. Quid tu rursus mihi flagella et eculeos magno apparatu explicas? quid singulis articulis singula machinamenta quibus extorqueantur aptata et mille alia instrumenta excarnificandi particulatim hominis? Pone ista quae nos obstupefaciunt; iube conticiscere gemitus et exclamationes et vocum inter lacerationem elisarum acerbitatem: nempe dolor es, quem podagricus ille contemnit, quem stomachicus ille in ipsis delicis perfert, quem in puerperio puella perpetitur. Levis es si ferre possum; brevis es si ferre non possum.

Believe me, Lucilius: death must not appear so frightful to us that we expect no benefit from her. Hear the threats of an enemy secure in your conviction that our end is never wasted. And though your conscience give you confidence of survival, nevertheless, since many events occur outside our expectation, hope for the best even as you prepare for the worst. Before all else, remember to give no place to panic in your affairs, and to observe how matters stand in every particular circumstance. You will know then that there is nothing terrible in them besides terror itself. What you see happen to children occurs also to us, who are merely overgrown children: when the kids see playmates they know and love in masks, they are terrified. We must remove the mask not merely from persons, but also from events, if we are to master fear: remove the mask and make matters show their true face.

You who show me swords and fires, a mob of butchers roaring round, who or what are you? Strip away this parade behind which you hide, striking fear into the hearts of fools! You are merely Death, just recently mocked by my servant, and my handmaiden too. Now for your comrade, the one besieging my back with whips and racks, so ostentatiously prepared—an individual machine for breaking every joint, and a thousand other instruments for dismembering the human body! What are you? Put aside all your devices for numbing us. Bid the groans and shouts fall silent, the harsh shrieks torn from us as we are rent asunder. You are only Pain! This gouty fellow here despises you, and his friend with indigestion won't even interrupt a feast for you. A girl in childbirth takes the worst you have to offer. If I am capable of enduring you, then you are easy. But if I cannot bear you, then our meeting shall be brief.