Letter 8009: It seems ages since I took up a book or a pen, and ages since I knew what it was to do nothing, and rest and enjoy...

Pliny the YoungerCornelius Ursus|c. 107 AD|Pliny the Younger
education booksfriendship

To Ursus.

It seems ages since I took up a book or a pen, and ages since I knew what it was to do nothing, and rest and enjoy that lazy but delightful state of inactivity where you hardly know you exist. I have been so busy with my friends' business that I have had no time for leisure or study. For no study is so important that it warrants us in neglecting to perform the offices of friendship, since this is the duty which our studies teach us to observe most religiously. Farewell.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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