Don't chase novelty. Seneca, Epistles 2.13.16-17

Make sure to spend time aging with your best habits. Keep them, and develop them, so that your old age is not merely another misspent youth. Habits you are constantly dropping in pursuit of something new cannot teach you wisdom or contentment.


Sed iam finem epistulae faciam, si illi signum suum inpressero, id est aliquam magnificam vocem perferendam ad te mandavero. Inter cetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia: semper incipit vivere. Considera quid vox ista significet, Lucili virorum optime, et intelleges quam foeda sit hominum levitas cotidie nova vitae fundamenta ponentium, novas spes etiam in exitu inchoantium. Circumspice tecum singulos: occurrent tibi senes qui se cum maxime ad ambitionem, ad peregrinationes, ad negotiandum parent. Quid est autem turpius quam senex vivere incipiens? Non adicerem auctorem huic voci, nisi esset secretior nec inter vulgata Epicuri dicta, quae mihi et laudare et adoptare permisi. Vale.


But now it is time to put an end to this epistle, once I have sealed it with another magnificent aphorism for you. “Among its sins, stupidity holds also this one: it is always just beginning to live.” Consider what this saying means, Lucilius, my dearest friend, and you shall understand the treacherous inconstancy of folk who are daily laying the foundations of a new life, starting up new hopes even as they perish with the old. Look at the individuals around you. You will meet ancient men who give themselves wholly to ambition, travel, business. Is there anything more repulsive than an old man just beginning to live? I would add nothing here about the source of this aphorism, but it is relatively obscure, finding no place among the sayings commonly credited to Epicurus that I have already allowed myself to praise and claim for my own. Farewell!