Cicero Quote on Sorrow: The Consolation of Philosophy

Quote

"Philosophy is the medicine of the soul, and the sorrow that is understood is the sorrow that can be borne: the grief is the judgment, and the judgment can be examined — the consolation is in the understanding." — Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, Book III (45 BCE)

Author

Cicero (106–43 BCE) was the greatest orator of the Roman Republic and the founder of Latin philosophical prose. The Tusculan Disputations, written in the shadow of his daughter's death, is his most personal philosophical work.

Source

The quotation is from Book III of the Tusculan Disputations, the book on the conquest of grief. The translation follows J.E. King's Loeb edition (1927).

Context

Cicero wrote the book in 45 BCE, after the death of his daughter Tullia, and the book on grief is the book he needed to write. The teaching belongs to the Stoic therapy of the emotions: the grief is the judgment — the judgment that the loss is an evil that destroys us — and the judgment can be examined and corrected. The consolation is in the understanding: the sorrow that is understood — seen as the judgment, not as the fact — is the sorrow that can be borne.

Meaning

The quotation states the Stoic therapy of grief with complete clarity. "Philosophy is the medicine of the soul" — the definition: the philosophy is the medicine — the therapy of the disturbed soul. "The sorrow that is understood is the sorrow that can be borne" — the consolation: the understanding is the consolation — the sorrow that is seen for what it is — the judgment, not the fact — is the sorrow that can be borne. "The grief is the judgment" — the analysis: the grief is the judgment — the evaluation of the loss as the evil — and the evaluation is the source of the disturbance. "The judgment can be examined" — the therapy: the judgment can be examined and corrected — the loss is not the evil, the love remains, the life continues. "The consolation is in the understanding" — the conclusion: the consolation is the understanding — the correction of the judgment that brings the peace. The quotation is the Stoic therapy of grief in its most personal form, and it grounds the practice of the response to loss in the Stoic wisdom tradition.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic therapy of grief and the philosophy of the medicine of the soul. Its account of the consolation in the understanding connects to Seneca's consolations and to the wider wisdom tradition's teaching on the grief that can be borne. The teaching is among the most personal in the Stoic wisdom tradition, written by the philosopher who needed it.