Avoiding Idle Company and Perfecting Life before Death — Seneca the Younger, Moral Letters to Lucilius 32.1–32.5, Latin & English

§32.1

Inquiro de te et ab omnibus sciscitor, qui ex ista regione veniunt, quid agas, ubi et cum quibus moreris. Verba dare¹ non potes; tecum sum. Sic vive, tamquam quid facias auditurus sim, immo tamquam visurus. Quaeris quid me maxime ex iis, quae de te audio, delectet? Quod nihil audio, quod plerique ex his, quos interrogo, nesciunt quid agas.

I inquire about you and ask everyone who comes from that region what you are doing, where and with whom you are staying. You cannot deceive me; I am with you. Live in such a way as if I were about to hear what you are doing, or rather, as if I were about to see it. Do you ask what pleases me most among those things which I hear about you? It is that I hear nothing, that most of those whom I question do not know what you are doing.

§32.2

Hoc est salutare, non conversari dissimilibus et diversa cupientibus. Habeo quidem fiduciam non posse te detorqueri mansurumque in proposito, etiam si sollicitantium turba circumeat. Quid ergo est? Non timeo, ne mutent te, timeo, ne inpediant. Multum autem nocet etiam qui moratur, utique in tanta brevitate vitae, quam breviorem inconstantia facimus aliud eius subinde atque aliud facientes initium. Diducimus illam in particulas ac lancinamus.

It is salutary not to associate with those who are dissimilar and desire different things. Indeed, I have confidence that you cannot be twisted aside and that you will remain in your purpose, even if a crowd of tempters should surround you. What is it then? I do not fear that they will change you, but I fear that they will hinder you. Moreover, even one who delays you does much harm, especially in such brevity of life, which we make even shorter by our inconsistency, making now one beginning of it and then another. We divide it into particles and tear it to pieces.

§32.3

Propera ergo, Lucili carissime, et cogita quantum additurus celeritati fueris,² si a tergo hostis instaret, si equitem adventare suspicareris ac fugientium premere vestigia. Fit hoc, premeris; accelera et evade, perduc te in tutum et subinde considera, quam pulchra res sit consummare vitam ante mortem, deinde expectare securum reliquam temporis sui partem, nihil sibi,³ in possessione beatae vitae positum, quae beatior non fit, si longior.

Hurry then, my dearest Lucilius, and consider how much speed you would have added if an enemy were pressing from behind, if you suspected that cavalry were approaching and treading on the heels of the fugitives. This is happening, you are being pressed; accelerate and escape, bring yourself to safety, and constantly consider how beautiful a thing it is to complete one’s life before death, and then to await in security the remaining part of one’s time, needing nothing for oneself, having been placed in the possession of a happy life, which does not become happier if it is longer.

§32.4

O quando illud videbis tempus, quo scies tempus ad te non pertinere, quo tranquillus placidusque eris et crastini neglegens ut in summa tui satietate! Vis scire, quid sit, quod faciat homines avidos futuri? Nemo sibi contigit.⁴ Optaverunt itaque tibi alia parentes tui; sed ego contra omnium tibi eorum contemptum opto, quorum illi copiam. Vota illorum multos conpilant, ut te locupletent. Quicquid ad te transferunt, alicui detrahendum est.

Oh, when will you see that time when you will know that time does not concern you, when you will be peaceful and calm and careless of tomorrow, as if in your greatest satisfaction! Do you wish to know what it is that makes people eager for the future? No one has attained themselves. Therefore, your parents wished other things for you; but I, on the contrary, wish for you the contempt of all those things of which they wished you an abundance. Their vows despoil many to enrich you. Whatever they transfer to you must be taken away from someone else.

§32.5

Opto tibi tui facultatem,⁵ ut vagis cogitationibus agitata mens tandem resistat et certa sit, ut placeat sibi et intellectis veris bonis, quae, simul intellecta sunt, possidentur, aetatis adiectione non egeat. Ille demum necessitates supergressus est et exauctoratus ac liber, qui vivit vita peracta. VALE.

I wish for you the possession of yourself, so that your mind, agitated by wandering thoughts, may finally stand still and be certain, so that it may please itself and, having understood the true goods, which are possessed as soon as they are understood, may not need the addition of years. He at last has transcended necessities, and is discharged and free, who lives his life completed. FAREWELL.

Syntax notes5 items

32.1Verba dare
An idiomatic expression meaning 'to deceive' or 'to cheat' (literally, 'to give words').
32.3fueris
Subjunctive perfect active periphrastic (-urus fueris) in the indirect question clause "quantum... fueris", representing the apodosis of a counterfactual conditional sentence with the protases "si... instaret, si... suspicareris" (imperfect subjunctive).
32.3nihil sibi
Modifying the participle positum ('one who has been placed'), this phrase implies something like [deesse sentientem] ('feeling that nothing is lacking to oneself') or [poscentem] ('demanding nothing for oneself'), expressing the self-sufficiency of the wise person.
32.4Nemo sibi contigit
Active perfect of contingere. Instead of the impersonal 'to happen to someone (with dative)', it is used here with the reflexive dative sibi in the philosophical sense of 'no one has attained or established ownership of oneself'.
32.5tui facultatem
A noun phrase with the genitive of the personal pronoun tui functioning as an objective genitive, meaning 'the power/possession of yourself' (self-mastery).

Translated by Gemini 3.5 Flash (published 2026-05-25)urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:32.1-32.5