Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 302.2 (Patrologia Latina, vol. 38, col. 1386; tr. Edmund Hill):

What this short life is like, well is there any need to describe it? We all experience how distressing, how full of complaints it is; beset by trials and temptations, full of fears, feverish with all kinds of greed, subject to accidents; grieving when things go badly, smugly self-satisfied when they go well; cock-a-hoop over profits, in agony over losses. And even when cock-a-hoop over profits, it's in dread of losing what it has gained; the man dreading being investigated on their account, who before he had anything was never subjected to investigation. True unhappiness, false happiness. The person at the bottom of the heap longs to climb to the top, the person at the top dreads sliding down to the bottom. The have-nots envy the haves; the haves despise the have-nots. And who can find the words to unfold how extensively and conspicuously ugly this life is?

Qualis sit brevis haec vita, quid describere opus est? Experti sumus quam aerumnosa, quam querelosa; circumdata temptationibus, plena timoribus; ardens cupiditatibus, subdita casibus; in adversis dolens, in prosperis tumens; lucris exsultans, damnis excrucians. Et in ipsis lucris exsultatione trepidat, ne quod acquisivit, amittat; ne propter hoc quaeratur, qui antequam haberet non quaerebatur. Vera infelicitas, mendosa felicitas. Humilis cupit ascendere, sublimatus timet descendere. Qui non habet, invidet habenti; qui habet, contemnit non habentem. Et quis explicet verbis huius vitae tantam et tam conspicuam foeditatem?