3 Therefore, if clear thinking is shown to control the emotions that prevent self-control, such as the tendency to overeat and rampant desire,
4 then it is clear that it also rules the emotions that prevent us from acting in a just way, such as ill will, and those emotions that prevent us from acting with courage, such as anger, fear, and pain.
5 Perhaps some people would object: "If clear thinking can control emotions, why doesn’t it do away with memory loss and ignorance?" But that’s just ridiculous.
6 The mind doesn’t have control over such things, but it controls the emotions and desires that resist justice, courage, and self-control. And it does this so that we won’t surrender to the emotions, not in order to destroy them.
7 I could show you that clear thinking has power over emotions and desires in any number of ways.
8 However, I can do this best by showing you the heroic courage of those who died to preserve their moral character: Eleazar, the seven brothers, and their mother.
9 By ignoring their pain to the point of death, all of these persons showed that clear thinking had complete control of their emotions.