Don't hustle too much. Seneca, Epistles 2.19.1-2

To everything there is a season. Hard work must be matched by rest. As we accumulate time and stress in life, it becomes more important than ever to cultivate leisure (otium), a retirement from the drudgery of our lives that avoids all the temptations and anxieties that come from taking things seriously. In Seneca's time, as in ours, there were people who tried to occupy their leisure with serious pursuits—writing history or philosophy, for example. Seneca does not discourage Lucilius from scholarship of this kind (schole in Greek translates the Latin otium), but he warns that treating it as work is a mistake, as is the concern for public reputation that infects many scholars. Presented with the modern academic command publish or perish!, Seneca would cheerfully perish, and leave publishing to the birds.

Exulto quotiens epistulas tuas accipio; implent enim me bona spe, et iam non promittunt de te sed spondent. Ita fac, oro atque obsecro—quid enim habeo melius quod amicum rogem quam quod pro ipso rogaturus sum?—si potes, subduc te istis occupationibus; si minus, eripe. Satis multum temporis sparsimus: incipiamus vasa in senectute colligere.

Numquid invidiosum est? in freto viximus, moriamur in portu. Neque ego suaserim tibi nomen ex otio petere, quod nec iactare debes nec abscondere; numquam enim usque eo te abigam generis humani furore damnato ut latebram tibi aliquam parari et oblivionem velim: id age ut otium tuum non emineat sed appareat.

I rejoice every time I receive a letter from you. Your letters fill me with hope, giving me a pledge of your good faith that is more than just a promise. I have a request for you, a prayer worthy of your time—for what better gift could I ask from a friend than one I seek for his own benefit? Do this for me: slip away from your petty business, if you can. If you can't, then tear yourself away perforce. We have wasted enough time already on business: time to start collecting vases, like the old men we are.

Why are we still hustling? We've already spent our lives at sea; let's die in port. I certainly don't mean to be caught urging you to build a reputation in your retirement, since you should not care enough about your fame either to boast of it or to hide it. And I shall never drive you so far from the damned madness of the human race that I consign you willingly to some dark corner in the realms of oblivion. My only wish is that you make the profit of your leisure apparent, not overwhelming.