Moral Letters to Lucilius

​So it is, I do not change my opinion: flee the crowd, flee the few, flee even a single person. I have no one with whom I would wish you to be shared. And see what judgment you have from me: I dare to trust you to yourself. Crates, as they say, the disciple of this very Stilbo, whom I mentioned in my previous letter, when he saw a young man walking in secret, asked him what he was doing there alone. “I am speaking with myself,” he said. To whom Crates said, “Take care, I beg you, and pay close attention: you are speaking with a bad man.”

​We are accustomed to keep watch over one who is mourning and fearing, lest he make bad use of solitude. There is no one among the foolish who ought to be left to himself; at that time they agitate evil plans, at that time they devise future dangers either for others or for themselves; then they arrange wicked desires; then the mind exposes whatever it was hiding out of fear or shame, then it whets audacity, incites lust, and goads anger. In short, the one advantage that solitude has, to commit nothing to anyone, not to fear an informer, is lost to the fool; he himself betrays himself. See therefore what I hope for you, or rather what I promise myself—for hope is the name of an uncertain good: I find no one with whom I would rather you be than with yourself.

​I recall to memory with how great a mind you threw out certain words, full of how much strength. I immediately congratulated myself and said: “Those words did not come from the edge of the lips, these voices have a foundation. This man is not one of the crowd; he looks toward salvation.”

​Speak thus, live thus; see that no thing depresses you. You may release the gods from your old vows, and undertake others anew; ask for a sound mind, sound health of soul, and then of body. Why should you not make those vows often? Boldly ask God; you are going to ask him for nothing belonging to another.

​But, that I may send the letter with some small gift according to my custom, it is true what I found in Athenodorus: “Know that you are free from all desires then, when you have reached the point where you ask nothing of God except what you can ask openly.” For how great is the madness of men now! They whisper the most shameful vows to the gods; if anyone brings his ear close, they will fall silent. And what they do not want a human being to know, they tell to God. See therefore whether this can be wholesomely prescribed: live with men as if God were watching; speak with God as if men were listening. FAREWELL.