Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 346C.2 (Angelo Mai, ed., Nova Patrum Bibliotheca, vol. I [Typis Sacri Consilii Propagando Christiano Nomini, 1852], p. 283; tr. Edmund Hill):

So when were things ever going well for the human race? When was there ever no fear, no grief, when was there ever assured happiness, ever not real unhappiness? If you haven't got something, you're in a sweat to get hold of it. Have you got it? You're shaking with fear of losing it. And what's much worse, both in that sweat and this fear you fondly imagine you are in good health of mind and body. Are you to marry a wife? If she's a bad one, it will be your punishment; if she's a good one, oh dear, oh dear, suppose she were to die! Children not born torment you with disappointment, children born torment you with all sorts of fears. What joy a newborn child brings to people, and immediately they are all fearful they may be mourning it as they carry it out for burial! When or where will life ever be secure? Isn't this whole earth like a great ship carrying its crew and passengers over the tossing waves, in great danger, subject to so many squalls and storms? They are afraid of shipwreck, they are longing to reach port, but at least they already realize they are travelers on a journey.

Quando ergo bene fuit generi humano? quando non timor, quando non dolor, quando certa felicitas, quando non vera infelicitas? Si non habes, ardes ut acquiras: habes? tremis ne perdas; et quod est miserius, et in illo ardore et in isto timore sanum te putas. Ducenda est uxor? si mala, erit poena tua; si bona, vae ne forte moriatur. Filii non nati torquent doloribus, nati timoribus; quam gaudentes facit natus, qui continuo timetur ne plangatur elatus! Ubi erit vita secura? Nonne omnis ista terra quasi navis magna est, portans fluctuantes, periclitantes, tot procellis et tempestatibus subiacentes? Timent naufragium, suspirant in portum, qui iam se intellegunt peregrinari.