§20.1Si vales et te dignum putas, qui aliquando fias tuus, gaudeo.
If you are well and think yourself worthy of sometime becoming your own master, I rejoice.
Mea enim gloria erit, si te istinc, ubi sine spe exeundi fluctuaris, extraxero.
For it will be my glory if I rescue you from there, where you are tossing about without hope of escaping.
Illud autem te, mi Lucili, rogo atque hortor, ut philosophiam in praecordia ima demittas et experimentum profectus tui capias non oratione nec scripto, sed animi firmitate, cupiditatum deminutione; verba rebus proba.
But this, my Lucilius, I ask and exhort you: that you let philosophy sink into your innermost heart, and take the test of your progress not by speech or writing, but by firmness of mind and diminution of desires; prove your words by your deeds.
§20.2Aliud propositum est declamantibus et adsensionem coronae captantibus, aliud his, qui iuvenum et otiosorum aures disputatione varia aut volubili detinent; facere docet philosophia, non dicere, et hoc exigit, ut ad legem suam quisque vivat, ne orationi vita dissentiat, ut ipsa intra se vita unius sit omnium actionum sine dissensione coloris.
One thing is the purpose of those who declaim and catch at the applause of the crowd, another of those who hold the ears of the young and the idle with varied or fluent disputation; philosophy teaches to do, not to speak, and demands this: that everyone live according to his own law, that life do not dissent from speech, that life itself be one within itself, of a single color without discord in all actions.
Maximum hoc est et officium sapientiae et indicium, ut verbis opera concordent, ut ipse ubique par sibi idemque sit.
This is the greatest duty and proof of wisdom, that deeds agree with words, that the man himself be everywhere equal and the same to himself.
"Quis hoc praestabit?" Pauci, aliqui tamen.
"Who will guarantee this?" Few, yet some.
Est enim difficile hoc; nec hoc dico, sapientem uno semper iturum gradu, sed una via.
For this is difficult; nor do I say this, that the wise man will always go with one and the same pace, but on one and the same path.
§20.3Observa te itaque, numquid vestis tua domusque dissentiant, numquid in te liberalis sis, in tuos sordidus, numquid cenes frugaliter, aedifices luxuriose.
Therefore, observe yourself, whether your dress and your house disagree, whether you are generous to yourself and stingy to your family, whether you dine frugally and build luxuriously.
Unam semel ad quam vivas regulam prende et ad hanc omnem vitam tuam exaequa.
Lay hold once of a single rule according to which you may live, and conform your whole life to this.
Quidam se domi contrahunt, dilatant foris et extendunt; vitium est haec diversitas et signum vacillantis animi ac nondum habentis tenorem suum.
Some contract themselves at home, expand and stretch themselves abroad; this diversity is a fault, and a sign of a wavering mind that does not yet hold its own steady course.
§20.4Etiamnunc dicam, unde sit ista inconstantia et dissimilitudo rerum consiliorumque: nemo proponit sibi, quid velit, nec si proposuit, perseverat in eo, sed transilit; nec tantum mutat, sed redit et in ea, quae deseruit ac damnavit, revolvitur.
Even now I shall tell you whence arises that inconstancy and dissimilarity of deeds and plans: no one proposes to himself what he wants, nor, if he has proposed it, does he persevere in it, but leaps across; and he not only changes, but returns and rolls back into those things which he abandoned and condemned.
§20.5Itaque ut relinquam definitiones sapientiae veteres et totum conplectar humanae vitae modum, hoc possum contentus esse: Quid est sapientia? Semper idem velle atque idem nolle.
Therefore, that I may leave behind the old definitions of wisdom and encompass the whole manner of human life, I can be content with this: What is wisdom? To always want the same thing and to always reject the same thing.
Licet illam exceptiunculam non adicias, ut rectum sit, quod velis; non potest enim cuiquam idem semper placere nisi rectum.
You need not add that little exception, that what you want must be right; for the same thing cannot always please anyone unless it is right.
§20.6Nesciunt ergo homines, quid velint, nisi illo momento, quo volunt; in totum nulli velle aut nolle decretum est.
Therefore, humans do not know what they want, except in that moment in which they want it; as a whole, to want or not to want is decided for no one.
Variatur cotidie iudicium et in contrarium vertitur ac plerisque agitur vita per lusum.
Daily judgment varies and is turned to the contrary, and for most people life is spent as a game.
Preme ergo quod coepisti, et fortasse perduceris aut ad summum aut eo, quod summum nondum esse solus intellegas.
Press on, therefore, with what you have begun, and perhaps you will be led either to the summit or to that point which you alone understand is not yet the summit.