Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 15

Quod incredibilius videtur, id concedis, aliquem in maximis et continuis doloribus non esse miserum, esse etiam beatum; quod levius est, negas, beatissimum esse. Atqui si potest virtus efficere, ne miser aliquis sit, facilius efficiet, ut beatissimus sit. Minus enim intervalli a beato ad beatissimum restat quam a misero ad beatum. An quae res tantum valet, ut ereptum calamitatibus inter beatos locet, non potest adicere quod superest, ut beatissimum faciat? In summo deficit clivo?

mais on n’est pas au faîte du bonheur, lorsque les biens physiques nous manquent, comme la santé et l’intégrité des organes. » Ce qui paraît le moins admissible, tu l’accordes, savoir, qu’un homme en proie à d’extrêmes et continuelles douleurs n’est pas à plaindre, qu’il est même heureux, et tu nies la conséquence, bien moindre, qu’il le soit parfaitement. Cependant, si la vertu peut faire qu’un homme ne soit pas malheureux, bien plus aisément complétera-t-elle son bonheur, car il reste moins d’intervalle entre l’heureux et le très-heureux, qu’entre le misérable et l’heureux. Quoi ! la puissance capable d’arracher l’homme aux calamités pour le mettre au rang des heureux, ne saurait achever son œuvre et l’élever au bonheur suprême ! Elle fléchit quand elle touche au sommet !

But in saying this, you grant the alternative which seems the more difficult to believe, - that the man who is in the midst of unremitting and extreme pain is not wretched, nay, is even happy; and you deny that which is much less serious, - that he is completely happy. And yet, if virtue can keep a man from being wretched, it will be an easier task for it to render him completely happy. For the difference between happiness and complete happiness is less than that between wretchedness and happiness. Can it be possible that a thing which is so powerful as to snatch a man from disaster, and place him among the happy, cannot also accomplish what remains, and render him supremely happy? Does its strength fail at the very top of the climb?