Letters 30.2

Just as in a ship that springs a leak, you can always stop the first or the second fissure, but when many holes begin to open and let in water, the gaping hull cannot be saved; similarly, in an old man’s body, there is a certain limit up to which you can sustain and prop its weakness. But when it comes to resemble a decrepit building,—when every joint begins to spread and while one is being repaired another falls apart,—then it is time for a man to look about him and consider how he may get out.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 30.2, translated by Richard Mott Gummere