Vatican Saying 9

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Translation

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity.

Analysis

This rather apostrophic, Stoic-sounding Saying (probably) refers to the Epicurean "therapy" of reducing one's desires, and thereby one's needs. If one can keep one's desires in due bounds (as per the Epicurean theory of desire), then one discovers that there are only a few real needs, and therefore suffers the least anxiety in order to satisfy them.

As Epicurean learning mitigates the effects of chance (a point made in Principal Doctrine 16), it also mitigates the effects of necessity.

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