How contemptible are the things we admire!
Like children who regard every toy
As a thing of value,
Who cherish necklaces bought at a price of a mere penny
As more dear than their own parents or brothers!
We elders go crazy over paintings and sculptures taking delight in tall columns and pillars!
In large dining halls enough to contain a city crowd;
We check our own eyesight when we have overlaid
Our ceilings with gold,
For we know that beneath those gilding
There lurks some ugly wood!
Nor is such superficial decoration spread
Merely over walls and ceilings;
All the famous men whom you strutting about
With head in air,
Have nothing but a gold-leaf prosperity,
Look beneath and you will know,
How much evil lies under that thin coating of titles!
Letters from a stoic
Seneca
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