1From what you write to me, and from what I hear, I conceive good hope of you; 1you do not rush about, nor are you unsettled by changes of place. 1That tossing about belongs to a sick mind. 1I consider the first proof of a well-ordered mind to be the ability to stay in one place and to dwell with oneself. 2But see to this, that your reading of many authors and of books of every kind does not have something wandering and unsteady about it. 2You must linger over a few chosen minds and be nourished by them, if you wish to draw from them something that will settle faithfully in your mind.
2He who is everywhere is nowhere. 2This is what happens to those who spend their life travelling abroad: they have many hosts, but no friendships. 2The same must needs befall those who attach themselves closely to no one's mind, but pass everything by in a rush and a hurry. 3Food does no good and is not taken into the body if it is expelled as soon as it is eaten; 3nothing hinders health so much as frequent changing of remedies; 3a wound does not come to a scar if medicines are being tried out on it; 3a plant does not grow strong if it is often moved. 3Nothing is so useful that it can be of benefit in passing.
3A multitude of books distracts. 3And so, since you cannot read as much as you may possess, it is enough to possess as much as you can read. 4'But,' you say, 'I want to unroll this book now, and now that one.' 4It is the mark of a squeamish stomach to taste many things; 4and when these are varied and diverse, they defile and do not nourish. 4So always read authors of proven worth, and if ever you feel like turning aside to others, return to the earlier ones. 4Each day procure some help against poverty, some against death, and no less against the other plagues; 4and when you have run through many things, pick out one to digest that day.
5This is what I do myself too; 5out of the many things I have read, I lay hold of something. 5Today's is this, which I came upon in Epicurus; 5for I am in the habit of crossing even into the enemy's camp, not as a deserter, but as a scout. 6'Cheerful poverty,' he says, 'is an honourable thing.' 6But it is not poverty at all, if it is cheerful. 6It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor. 6For what does it matter how much lies in his strongbox, how much in his granaries, how many beasts he grazes or how much money he lends at interest, if he hangs over another's goods, if he counts not what he has acquired but what he has yet to acquire?
6Do you ask what the limit of wealth is? 6First, to have what is necessary; next, to have what is enough. 6Farewell.