Letter 62

They lie who wish it to seem that a throng of business stands in the way of their liberal studies; they feign their occupations, and multiply them, and busy themselves with their own selves. I am at leisure, Lucilius, I am at leisure, and wherever I am, there I am my own man. For I do not hand myself over to affairs, but lend myself, nor do I go hunting for reasons to waste time. And in whatever place I have taken my stand, there I work over my thoughts and turn over in my mind something wholesome.

When I have given myself to my friends, I do not therefore withdraw myself from myself, nor do I linger with those whom some occasion has brought together with me, or a cause arising from civil duty, but I am with the best of men; to them, in whatever place, in whatever age they have lived, I send my mind.

Demetrius, the best of men, I carry about with me, and leaving the men dressed in purple I talk with him, half-naked as he is, and I admire him. Why should I not admire him? I have seen that he lacks nothing. A man can despise all things; no man can possess all things. The shortest road to riches is through the contempt of riches. But our Demetrius lives, not as though he had despised all things, but as though he had left them to others to possess. Farewell.