Seneca · a new plain-English translation from the Latin
Seneca to his dear Lucilius: greetings. Those who want it to look as though a crowd of business affairs stands in the way of their liberal studies are lying: they pretend to be busy, they exaggerate it, and they keep themselves busy on purpose. I have free time, Lucilius, I have free time, and wherever I am, there I am my own. I don't hand myself over to affairs, I only lend myself to them, and I don't chase after reasons to waste my time; wherever I've come to a stop, that's where I turn over my own thoughts and work through something wholesome in my mind.
When I've given myself to friends, I still don't withdraw from myself, and I don't linger with those whom some occasion has thrown together or some duty born of public office, but I keep company with the best people of all; to them, in whatever place, in whatever age they lived, I send my mind.
I carry Demetrius, the best of men, around with me, and leaving behind the men dressed in purple, I talk with him half-naked, and I admire him. Why wouldn't I admire him? I've seen that he lacks nothing. Anyone can despise everything, but no one can have everything: the shortest road to riches is through despising riches. Our Demetrius, though, lives not as though he had despised everything, but as though he had let others have it. Farewell.