Seneca wrote this in a letter to his friend Lucilius, gently scolding him for worrying about an illness that had not yet come. Seneca pointed out that most of our suffering is not from reality but from imagination — a kind of self-inflicted injury. In Roman times, with plagues and political executions looming, fear was constant. But Seneca observed that the mind often invents torments even in times of peace. His message remains timeless: Why double your pain by fearing what hasn't yet arrived? Prepare, yes — but do not live in dread of shadows.