Lose your fortune. Seneca, Epistles 2.19.8
Proper
rest must be hunted. It is not enough to desire rest, retirement,
study, reflection. We must cultivate them actively, or lose ourselves
to the tides of life that drive us naturally to distraction, despair,
and ruin. If you give the course of your life over to some material
fortune or business, it will own you much more than you can ever own
it. Cut it loose, or it will damn you. Thus Seneca.
Quomodo
inquis exibo?
Utcumque. Cogita quam multa temere pro pecunia, quam multa
laboriose pro honore temptaveris: aliquid et pro otio audendum est,
aut in ista sollicitudine procurationum et deinde urbanorum
officiorum senescendum, in tumultu ac semper novis fluctibus quos
effugere nulla modestia, nulla vitae quiete contingit. Quid enim ad
rem pertinet an tu quiescere velis? fortuna tua non vult. Quid si
illi etiam nunc permiseris crescere? quantum ad successus accesserit
accedet ad metus.
"How
shall I escape from business?" you inquire. Anyway you can!
Think how many rash things you have done for money, how much toil and
suffering you have undertaken for honor. Your rest and retirement
deserve some daring, as well, or it will become your lot to grow old
with no respite from life, forever anxious about administration and
bureaucracy, drowning in a tide of endless tumult you will never
escape by any modest forbearance. What does it matter if you only
desire to rest? Your fortune will not have it: she has lusts of her own. What if you have
already allowed her desires to outgrow yours? Every time she meets
with more success, she will encounter greater fears.