Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) - 2.3.2. lyrics

Have it your own way, so long as you don't do the same! ‘Oh, dear boy, don't deceive yourself, you're crazed too, Almost all are fools, if Stertinius rings true, from whom I swiftly learnt these marvellous precepts, at that time When he comforted me, told me to grow a sage's beard Be troubled no more, and forget the FabricianBridge: It was when my business failed, and I wanted to shroud My head and leap in the river: he appeared at my side, Saying: “Beware of doing something unworthy: You're wrong to be tortured by shame: among madmen, Fear to seem mad. Let me ask first what madness is: If you alone have it, I'll not stop you dying bravely. Chrysippus' Stoa, and his school, call insane all those Whom dumb folly and ignorance of the truth drives Blindly on. That includes nations, and mighty kings, All but the wise. Now learn why all those who call You insane, are every bit as foolish themselves. It's like a wood, where error leads men to wander Here and there, from the true path, one off to the left, Another off to the right, the same error both times, But leading them in different directions: so know You're only as mad as the man no wiser than you Who laughs at you, but still has a tail pinned behind. One cla** of fools is afraid when there's nothing to fear, Lamenting that flames, rocks, rivers, obstruct their way: Another differing, but no more wisely, rushes on Through fire and flood. Though a dear mother, a noble Sister, father, and wife, and kin all shout: ‘Look out, There's a deep ditch, there's a high rock!' They listen No more than drunken Fufius did, acting out sleeping Iliona, while twelve hundred watching, who joined with Catienus, as ghost, cried: ‘Mother, I'm calling you!' I'll show you the whole world's madness is like this.”