“If first you rid yourself of hope and fear
You have dismayed the tyrant's wrath:
But whosoever quakes in fear or hope,
Drifting and losing his mastery,
Has cast away his shield, has left his place,
And binds the chain with which he will be bound.”

Poem IV, lines 13-18
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I

Original

Nec speres aliquid nec extimescas, exarmaueris impotentis iram; at quisquis trepidus pauet uel optat, quod non sit stabilis suique iuris, abiecit clipeum locoque motus nectit qua ualeat trahi catenam.

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Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius 22
philosopher of the early 6th century 480

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