One person seeks joy in feasting and self-indulgence; another, in elections and crowds of supporters; another, in his mistress; another, in the idle display of culture and in literature that has no power to heal. All of them are led astray by delights that are deceptive and short-lived – like drunkenness, for example, which pays for a single hour of hilarious madness with a long-lasting sickness; or like applause and enthusiastic popularity and approval that are gained, and atoned for, at the cost of great mental disquietude. Seneca, Epistles 59.15
