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Plotinus – The Enneads

As for violent personal sufferings, he will carry them off as well as he can; if they overpass his endurance they will carry him off.

And so in all his pain he asks no pity; there is always the radiance in the inner soul of the man, untroubled like the light in a lantern when fierce gusts beat about it in a wild turmoil of wind and tempest.

But what if he be put beyond himself?  What if pain grow so intense and so torture him that the agony all but kills?  Well, when he is put to torture he will plan what is to be done; he retains his freedom of action.

Besides we must remember that the proficient sees things very differently from the average man; neither ordinary experiences nor pains and sorrows, whether touching himself or others, pierce to the inner hold.  To allow them any such passage would be a weakness in our soul.

And it is a sign of weakness, too, if we should think it gain not to hear of miseries, gain to die before they come; this is not concern for others welfare but for our own peace of mind.  Here we see our imperfection; we must not indulge it, we must put it from us and cease to tremble over what perhaps may be.