Letters 17.11

I might close my letter at this point, if I had not got you into bad habits. One cannot greet Parthian royalty without bringing a gift; and in your case I cannot say farewell without paying a price. But what of it? I shall borrow from Epicurus: “The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles.”

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 17.11, translated by Richard Mott Gummere