- Source
- Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol 1-3. Gummere, Richard Mott, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1917-1925.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:117.16-117.23
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-08
Seneca further discusses the relation between 'wisdom' and 'being wise' and criticizes philosophy's obsession with such empty verbal distinctions, urging a return to ethical practice, real living, and the mastery of death.
Ego in hoc volo sapiens esse, ut sapiam.1 Quid ergo? Non est id bonum, sine quo nec illud bonum est? Vos certe dicitis sapientiam, si sine usu detur, accipiendam non esse. Quid est usus sapientiae? Sapere; hoc est in illa pretiosissimum, quo detracto supervacua fit. Si tormenta mala sunt, torqueri malum est, adeo quidem, ut illa non sint mala, si quod sequitur detraxeris. Sapientia habitus perfectae mentis est, sapere usus perfectae mentis. Quomodo potest usus eius bonum non esse, quae sine usu bonum non est?
I wish to be a wise man for this purpose, that I may be wise. What then? Is that not a good, without which even the other is not a good? You certainly say that wisdom, if it is given without its use, is not to be accepted. What is the use of wisdom? To be wise; this is the most precious thing in it, by the removal of which it becomes useless. If instruments of torture are evil, to be tortured is an evil, to such an extent indeed that those are not evil if you remove what follows. Wisdom is the state of a perfected mind, to be wise is the use of a perfected mind. How can the use of that thing not be a good, which without its use is not a good?
Interrogo te, an sapientia expetenda sit; fateris. Interrogo, an usus sapientiae expetendus sit; fateris; negas enim te illam recepturum, si uti ea prohibearis. Quod expetendum est, bonum est. Sapere sapientiae usus est, quomodo eloquentiae eloqui, quomodo oculorum videre. Ergo sapere sapientiae usus est, usus autem sapientiae expetendus est; sapere ergo expetendum est. Si expetendum est, bonum est.
I ask you whether wisdom is to be sought; you admit it. I ask whether the use of wisdom is to be sought; you admit it; for you deny that you will receive it, if you are forbidden to use it. That which is to be sought is a good. To be wise is the use of wisdom, just as to speak is the use of eloquence, as to see is that of the eyes. Therefore to be wise is the use of wisdom, and the use of wisdom is to be sought; therefore to be wise is to be sought. If it is to be sought, it is a good.
Olim ipse me damno, qui illos imitor, dum accuso, et verba apertae rei impendo. Cui enim dubium potest esse, quin si aestus malum est, et aestuare malum sit? Si algor malum est, malum sit algere? Si vita bonum est, et vivere bonum sit? Omnia ista circa sapientiam, non in ipsa sunt. At nobis in ipsa commorandum est.
I have long been condemning myself for imitating them while accusing them, and for spending words on an obvious matter. For who can doubt that if heat is an evil, to feel hot is also an evil? If cold is an evil, to feel cold is an evil? If life is a good, to live is also a good? All those things are around wisdom, not in wisdom itself. But we must dwell in wisdom itself.
Etiam si quid e vagari libet, amplos habet illa spatiososque secessus: de deorum natura quaeramus, de siderum alimento, de his tam variis stellarum discursibus, an ad illarum motus nostra moveantur, an corporibus omnium animisque illinc impetus veniat, an et haec, quae fortuita dicuntur, certa lege constricta sint nihilque in hoc mundo repentinum aut expers ordinis volutetur. Ista iam a formatione morum recesserunt, sed levant animum et ad ipsarum, quas tractat, rerum magnitudinem attollunt; haec vero, de quibus paulo ante dicebam, minuunt et deprimunt nec, ut putatis, exacuunt, sed extenuant.
Even if there is some pleasure in wandering, she has wide and spacious retreats: let us inquire into the nature of the gods, the nourishment of the stars, these so varied courses of the planets, whether our affairs are moved according to their motions, whether the impulse for all bodies and minds comes from there, whether even these things, which are called fortuitous, are bound by a certain law and nothing in this world is rolled along suddenly or without order. These things have already departed from the formation of character, but they elevate the mind and lift it to the grandeur of the very things it treats; on the other hand, these things of which I was speaking a little earlier diminish and depress the mind, and do not sharpen it, as you think, but wear it thin.
Obsecro vos, tam necessariam curam maioribus melioribusque debitam in re nescio an2 falsa, certe inutili terimus? Quid mihi profuturum est scire, an aliud sit sapientia, aliud sapere? Quid mihi profuturum est scire illud bonum esse, hoc non esse? Temere me geram, subibo huius voti aleam: tibi sapientia, mihi sapere contingat; pares erimus.
I beseech you, are we wasting such necessary care, which is due to greater and better things, on a matter that is perhaps false, but certainly useless? What will it profit me to know whether wisdom is one thing and to be wise is another? What will it profit me to know that the former is a good, but the latter is not? I shall act boldly, I shall undergo the hazard of this vow: let wisdom fall to your lot, and to be wise to mine; we shall be equal.
Potius id age, ut mihi viam monstres, qua ad ista perveniam. Dic, quid vitare debeam, quid adpetere, quibus animum labantem studiis firmem, quemadmodum quae me ex transverso feriunt aguntque, procul a me repellam, quomodo par esse tot malis possim, quomodo istas calamitates removeam, quae ad me inruperunt, quomodo illas, ad quas ego inrupi. Doce, quomodo feram aerumnam sine gemitu meo, felicitatem sine alieno, quomodo ultimum ac necessarium non expectem, sed ipsemet, cum visum erit, profugiam.
Rather make it your business to show me the way by which I may arrive at those things. Tell me what I ought to avoid, what to seek, by what studies I should strengthen a wavering mind, how I may repel far from me those things that strike and drive me sideways, how I can be a match for so many evils, how I may remove those calamities that have broken in upon me, and those into which I myself have broken. Teach me how I may bear hardship without my groaning, and good fortune without another’s, how I should not wait for the final and inevitable hour, but myself flee when it seems good.
Nihil mihi videtur turpius quam optare mortem. Nam si vis vivere, quid optas mori? Sive non vis, quid deos rogas, quod tibi nascenti dederunt? Nam ut quandoque moriaris, etiam invito positum est, ut cum voles,3 in tua manu est. Alterum tibi necesse est, alterum licet.
Nothing seems to me more shameful than to wish for death. For if you wish to live, why do you wish to die? Or if you do not wish to, why do you ask the gods for what they gave you when you were born? For that you will die sometime is established even against your will; that you will die when you wish is in your own hand. The one is necessary for you, the other is permitted.
Turpissimum his diebus principium diserti mehercules viri legi: "Ita," inquit, "quamprimum moriar.4" Homo demens, optas rem tuam. "Ita quamprimum moriar." Fortasse inter has voces senex factus es. Alioqui quid in mora est? Nemo te tenet; evade, qua visum est. Elige quamlibet rerum naturae partem, quam tibi praebere exitum iubeas. Haec nempe sunt elementa, quibus hic mundus administratur, aqua, terra, spiritus. Omnia ista tam causae vivendi sunt quam viae mortis."
Recently, I read a most shameful opening by a man, by Hercules, who was eloquent: ‘So,’ he said, ‘may I die as soon as possible.’ Madman, you are wishing for what is already your own. ‘So may I die as soon as possible.’ Perhaps you have become an old man among these utterances. Otherwise, what is the delay? No one holds you; escape by whichever way seems good. Choose any part of nature you please, which you may command to provide an exit for you. These indeed are the elements by which this world is administered: water, earth, air. All those are as much causes of living as ways of death.
- 117.16Ego in hoc volo sapiens esse, ut sapiam
The prepositional phrase "in hoc" (for this purpose) anticipationally points to (prolepsis) and emphasizes the subsequent purposive subjunctive clause "ut sapiam".
- 117.20nescio an
Although literally meaning 'I know not whether', in idiomatic Latin "nescio an" expresses a positive probability ('probably' or 'perhaps'). Here it modifies the adjective "falsa".
- 117.22ut cum voles
This is in parallel construction with the preceding noun clause "ut quandoque moriaris" (that you will die sometime). In this context, the verb "moriaris" is implied after the conjunction "ut", meaning 'that you will die when you wish'.
- 117.23Ita ... moriar
An idiomatic expression of wish using "ita" with the present subjunctive "moriar" (frequent in oaths or earnest desires). As confirmed by "optas" (you wish) in the next sentence, "ita" here functions as an independent particle of wishing ('so may I...').