But if he has directed his efforts to what is contained in books, and that is what he toils away at, and it was for that that he has travelled abroad, I would ask him to return home at once and no longer neglect his affairs there, [23] because he has made his journey for no purpose; no, what is truly worthwhile is to study how to rid one’s life of distress and lamentation, and of cries of ‘Ah, what sorrow is mine!’ and ‘Poor wretch that I am!’, and of misfortune and adversity; [24] and to learn what death, banishment, prison, and hemlock really are, so that one may be able to say in prison
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