Lifelong learning for philosophers. Seneca, Epistles 4.36.4-6

Seneca talks about the way learning changes for us, over the course of our lives. Initially, we learn the basics: what things are, what we can do. As we age, we learn how to change what we are doing: this is not changing the basics or relearning them, but applying them. Our goal is to create a mind inured to good and bad fortune: no matter what happens, we remain calm, active, and adaptive.

Hoc est discendi tempus. Quid ergo? aliquod est quo non sit discendum? Minime; sed quemadmodum omnibus annis studere honestum est, ita non omnibus institui. Turpis et ridicula res est elementarius senex: iuveni parandum, seni utendum est. Facies ergo rem utilissimam tibi, si illum quam optimum feceris; haec aiunt beneficia esse expetenda tribuendaque, non dubie primae sortis, quae tam dare prodest quam accipere. Denique nihil illi iam liberi est, spopondit; minus autem turpe est creditori quam spei bonae decoquere. Ad illud aes alienum solvendum opus est negotianti navigatione prospera, agrum colenti ubertate eius quam colit terrae, caeli favore: ille quod debet sola potest voluntate persolvi.

In mores fortuna ius non habet. Hos disponat ut quam tranquillissimus ille animus ad perfectum veniat, qui nec ablatum sibi quicquam sentit nec adiectum, sed in eodem habitu est quomodocumque res cedunt; cui sive aggeruntur vulgaria bona, supra res suas eminet, sive aliquid ex istis vel omnia casus excussit, minor non fit.

This is your time for learning. “What do you mean? Is there any other time, when we shouldn't learn?” Not at all. But though study is noble in all the years of our life, we cannot always approach it in the same way. An old man who cannot move beyond first principles is unseemly and ridiculous: preparing foundations is work for the young; the old must be engaged in some action, building what is already prepared. You will achieve great success, if you make your youthful foundation the best it can be. A proper education, they say, referring certainly to foundations rather than subsequent achievements, is the kind that must be sought out and passed on to future generations, since it provides benefits as good for the giver as for the receiver. The old man has no freedom, for he has already given his pledge. It is less shameful to cheat a creditor than to abandon some good hope that you have nourished. Debts to a creditor can be discharged by a single prosperous voyage, or a field whose richness the owner cultivates with the favor of earth and heaven. But the debt we owe to our young hopes can only be paid by commitment.

Fortune has no place in our character. A proper character requires us to arrange our habits so that at the end of every deed our mind finds itself as tranquil as possible, with nothing added to itself or subtracted therefrom, retaining its composure no matter how things fall out. If it is loaded with what the mob calls wealth, such a mind rises above the burden of its success. If accident removes some or even all its goods, it becomes no less, no weaker than it was.