"in vain, O Pain"

In the process of research this afternoon, came across this delightfully philosophic passage from a 1988 speech delivered by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Dickson:

As the Court explained in a decision three years after the trilogy: Pain and suffering and loss of amenities are intangibles. They are not possessions that have an objective, ascertainable value. Professor Kahn-Freund in his brilliant essay "Expectation of Happiness" (1941), 5 Modern L. Rev. 81 [at p. 86], cites the example of the Stoic philosopher Poseidonios, who, when tormented by pain, is reported to have exclaimed: "Pain, thou shalt not defeat me. I shall never admit that thou art an evil."

However, Professor Kahn-Freund asks, could we award damages for pain and suffering to this philosopher who welcomed his misery as a test of his own power to resist it? Is the Stoic entitled to less compensation than the weak-willed person who recoils at the slightest suggestion of pain or unhappiness? These examples only reinforce the conclusion that it is fruitless to attempt to put a dollar value on the loss of a faculty in the way that we put a dollar value on the loss of a piece of property.

In yet another bow to the powers of the Internet to distract and inform, such words simply begged for further (procrastinating) inquiry. Quick googling led me to the more common spelling of this philosopher's name - Posidonius - and a brief review of his life story. Remarkable. And though the quote bolded above initially sparked the mid-day break from routine, I admit to much preferring this slighly convoluted translation and adopt it wholeheartedly:

"in vain, O Pain," he exclaimed one day under the pangs of it, "in vain thou subjectest me to torture; it is not in thee to extort from me the reproach that thou art an evil."

Indeed. And thus the daily struggle against the mappined limits of our lives continues.