Difficulties in life arise from the easy path of vice,
ease in life arises from the difficult path of virtue.
Marsilio Ficino writes to Piero del Nero, a man of great brilliance.
How much harder it is to advance with the certainty of reason than to wander randomly, to climb than to fall, to try new things than to do the usual, to reach the center of the circle than to resort to any of countless other points. How much harder it is to hit the target with an arrow, in its marked center, than around it; to stick to the beaten path or furrow than to wander around, to go perfectly straight than to veer off course. Likewise, it is harder to act correctly than incorrectly, to be good rather than bad.
Indeed, it is evident that we all go astray every day and only a few of us act honorably and correctly.
Nevertheless, divine law compensates for the extreme difficulties of this path of virtue with two privileges.
First, virtues are so closely interconnected that whoever follows one gains them all. On the other hand, vices are so not incompatible that not everyone can simultaneously have all qualities in one person. Because how can someone be both stingy and wasteful at the same time? Or thoughtless and timid?
Secondly, after the initial difficulties that arise in the birth of a virtue, the easiest and most pleasant life follows. A short struggle is followed by eternal reward. And the ease of vice is quickly followed by terrible difficulty and constant suffering. That is why Pythagoras said, “Do not touch a being with a black tail!” In other words, flee from vices because behind them lies the darkening of the mind and the torment of the will.
Farewell, brilliant Nero! Since you have gained virtue through difficulties, you have achieved the ease of life through virtue. In order to reach the fullness of happiness from here, remember that it is difficult and arduous to find the way out of the deep abyss of vice and climb to the upper regions, so difficult that no one has the necessary strength for such an ascent without the favor of just Jupiter and the fervent virtue that would elevate him from that place to the upper, pure, and shining heavens.