How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
One day I looked in the mirror and realized that forty years had passed; I was old. Where had my life gone? With the help of my psychiatrist I had overcome my drinking problem; and I'd had money, houses, and women. But I had no one now. I was lonely. [...]
I now passed the days in my favorite rocking chair, sipping wine, watching TV, and thinking about old times. I watched children play in front of the house. It had been a good life, I supposed. I'd gotten everything I'd gone after, so why wasn't I happy? (1.131-133)
Dan's vision shows him a future where he's done all the right things, according to the conventional view of life, but still finds himself vaguely dissatisfied, left unhappy without knowing why. Socrates basically gives him this vision to scare him into taking up the difficult training.
Quote #5
"Dan, you are suffering; you do not fundamentally enjoy your life. Your entertainments, your physical affairs, and your gymnastics are temporary ways to distract you from your underlying sense of fear [...] for you they're addictions, not entertainments. You use them to distract you from your chaotic inner life—the parade of regrets, anxieties, and fantasies you call your mind." (2.13-15)
Whoa, this is a pretty intense dismissal of Dan's way of life. Deep down, Socrates says, the youth is unhappy. His despairing mind drives him to distraction. Everything looks good officially—he's got girlfriends and movies and so on—but really, he's dissatisfied with all that and suffering. What could be the answer? Tune in to Socrates to find out, of course.
Quote #6
"If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality [...] Life is not suffering; it's just that you will suffer it, rather than enjoy it, until you let go of your mind's attachments and just go for the ride freely, no matter what happens." (2.25-27)
All this suffering makes us want tissue paper to wipe our eyes. But really, the point is that pinning your hopes on anything, Socrates says, isn't the way to go. Whether you get what you want or not, you're going to be dissatisfied, at best just kind of "meh" about it all, wondering why you're not happy. Instead—you've got the point by now, right?—you need to just enjoy life no matter if things are supposedly turning out well or poorly for you.