Moral Letters to Lucilius

​Next, three things must be practiced in accordance with the ancient precept so that they may be avoided: hatred, envy, and contempt. How this may be done, wisdom alone will show. For the temperament is difficult, and we must fear lest the fear of envy transfer us into contempt, and lest, while we do not wish to be trampled upon, we seem able to be trampled upon. To be able to be feared has brought causes of fearing to many. Let us draw ourselves back from every side; it does no less harm to be suspected than to be despised.

​Therefore we must take refuge in philosophy; these studies, I do not say among the good, but among the moderately bad, are in the place of sacred headbands. For forensic eloquence and whatever else moves the crowd has adversaries; this quiet philosophy, minding its own business, cannot be despised, and is honored by all intellectual arts even among the worst of men. Never will wickedness grow so strong, never will there be such a conspiracy against virtues, that the name of philosophy does not remain venerable and sacred. For the rest, philosophy itself must be treated calmly and modestly.

”What then?” you say, “Does Marcus Cato seem to you to philosophize modestly, who restrains a civil war by his opinion? Who intervenes in the midst of the arms of raging leaders? Who, while some are offending Pompey and others Caesar, attacks both at the same time?”

​Someone can dispute whether at that time public affairs ought to have been taken up by a wise man. “What do you want for yourself, Marcus Cato? It is no longer a question of liberty; it has long since been ruined. The question is whether Caesar or Pompey shall possess the state; what have you to do with that contention? No parts are yours; a master is being chosen. What is it to you which of them wins? The better one may win, but the winner cannot fail to be the worse.” I have touched upon the final parts of Cato. But not even the earlier years were such as to admit a wise man into that plundering of the state; what else did Cato do but shout and send forth useless words, when now lifted up by the hands of the crowd and covered in spit he was dragged out of the forum to be carried away, now led from the senate to prison?

​But we shall see later whether a wise man should give his efforts to the state; in the meantime, I call you to these Stoics who, excluded from the state, withdrew to cultivate life and establish laws for the human race without any offense to a more powerful person. The wise man will not disturb public manners, nor turn the crowd upon himself by the novelty of his life.

”What then? Will he who follows this purpose surely be safe?” I can no more promise you this than good health in a temperate man, and yet temperance produces good health. Some ship perishes in port; but what do you believe happens in the middle of the sea? How much more ready would danger be for this man acting and striving in many things, for whom not even leisure is safe? Innocent people perish sometimes; who denies it? Guilty people, however, perish more often. His art remains intact for him who has been struck through his armor.

​In short, the wise man looks at the plan of all things, not the outcome. The beginnings are in our power; fortune judges the event, and I do not give her the right to pass judgment on me. “But it will bring some vexation, some adversity.” A robber does not condemn when he kills.

​Now you stretch out your hand for the daily alms. I shall fill you with a golden alms, and since mention has been made of gold, accept how the use and enjoyment of it can be more pleasing to you. “He enjoys riches most who least needs riches.” “Tell me,” you say, “the author.” So that you may know how generous we are, it is our purpose to praise the things of others; it belongs to Epicurus or Metrodorus or someone from that workshop.

​And what does it matter who said it? He said it to all. He who needs riches fears for them. But no one enjoys an anxious good; he strives to add something to them. While he thinks about the increase, he has forgotten the use. He receives accounts, wears out the forum, turns over the calendar; from a master, he becomes a steward. FAREWELL.