Letter 1611: A teacher must live what he teaches.
But if patience never heals anyone, and the disease is always growing worse and coming to an incurable end, it would be just for patience to cease, since through this alone it hunts what it was unable to capture through many dangers and punishments. For satiety follows upon ceasing, while the passion is aggravated by continued seeking. And wealth is defined by being content with a few things, while poverty is recognized by desiring more. If, therefore, the opposite tends to happen to the lover of money — for he cannot obtain what he desires — then by fleeing the passion itself headlong, you will enjoy satiety of wealth, and relaxation, and honor.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Α τινος, ἀλλ᾿ ἀεὶ κορυφοῦσθαι τὸ νόσημα, καὶ εἰς τὸ
ἀνίατον τελευτᾷν, παύσασθαι ἂν εἴη δικαία, ὡς διὰ
τούτου μόνου θηρῶσα, ὁ θηρᾶσαι διὰ πολλῶν κινδύ-
νων καὶ κολάσεων οὐκ ἠδυνήθη. Τῷ μὲν γὰρ παύ
σασθαι ὁ κόρος ἀκολουθεῖ, τῷ δὲ ἐπιζητεῖν τὸ πάθος
ἐπιτρίβεται· καὶ τῷ μὲν ὀλίγοις ἀρκεῖσθαι ὁ πλοῦτος
ὁρίζεται, τῷ δὲ πλειόνων ἐφίεσθαι ἡ πενία γνωρί-
ζεται. Εἰ τοίνυν τούναντίον φιλεῖ συμβαίνειν τῷ τῶν
χρημάτων ἐραστῇ (οὗ γὰρ ἐφίεται τυχεῖν οὐ δύ-
ναται), αὐτὸ τὸ πάθος προτροπάδην φεύγων, καὶ
κόρου πλούτου, καὶ ἀνέσεως, καὶ τιμῆς ἀπο-
λαύσεις.
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