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.