Letter 123 — On the Conflict Between Pleasure and Virtue (§17)

“You should learn such principles as these, nay rather you should learn them by heart; philosophy ought not to try to explain away vice. For a sick man, when his physician bids him live recklessly, is doomed beyond recall. Farewell. ↑ i.e., a dinner given by an official when he entered upon (adeo) his office. ↑ For symphonia see Ep. li. 4 and note. Compare also the commissiones, orchestral exhibitions, composed of many voices, flutes, and brass instruments, Ep. lxxxiv. 10. ↑ i.e., to live by Stoicism rather than by Epicureanism. ↑ Meaning, in line with the Stoic paradoxes, that only the sage knows how to be rightly in love.”