1I was greatly pleased when I learned from our common friends that, as befits your wisdom, you both arrange your leisure and bear it well, that you live in most pleasant surroundings, exercise your body now on land, now on sea, discuss much, listen much, read much, and, though you know a great deal, still learn something new every day. 2That is how a man ought to grow old who has held the highest magistracies, commanded armies, and given himself wholly to the state as long as it was fitting. 3For we ought to devote the first and middle periods of our life to our country, the last to ourselves, as the laws themselves advise, which return a man older in years to leisure.
4When will I be allowed, when will my age make it honourable, to imitate that example of most beautiful repose? 4when will my retirements receive the name not of idleness but of tranquillity? 4Farewell.