Greetings from Seneca to Lucilius.
Evaluating what you write to me and what I hear, I am forming a good impression about your future. You don't run from one place to another and you don't get distracted by constantly changing your environment; such restlessness is a sign of a disordered mind. To me, the main sign of a well-organized mind is a man's ability to stay in one place and find satisfaction in his own company.
However, it is important to be careful that reading many authors and books of different types does not make you dispersive and unstable. It is essential that you focus on a limited number of master thinkers and immerse yourself in their works so that you can build solid ideas in your mind. Being everywhere also means being nowhere. When someone spends all their time traveling, they end up meeting a lot of people, but no true friends. Likewise, those who seek knowledge without dedicating themselves to a specific author, visiting them all in a hurried manner, end up not acquiring a deep understanding.
Food is not good for you and is not assimilated by the body if it is quickly eliminated from the stomach; Likewise, constantly changing medications prevents healing; a wound does not heal if several balms are applied in a row; a plant frequently moved never grows strong. Nothing is as effective as what is kept static. And when reading many books there is distraction. Therefore, since it is not possible to read all the books one can own, it is enough to only have those that one can actually read.
You might say, "I want to explore one book first and then another." I tell you that this is similar to someone who indulges in gluttony, trying many dishes; they may appear varied, but they do not truly satisfy. You should always read quality authors and when you want a change, go back to those you have read before. Each day acquire something that will strengthen you against poverty, death and other misfortunes; After you have examined many thoughts, select one to be completely digested that day.
This is the practice I follow: of the many things I read, I retain some for myself. Today's reflection is one I found in Epicurus; I even tend to explore the enemy's camp (for Stoicism is opposed to Epicureanism) - not as a deserter, but as an observer. He says: “Satisfied poverty is an honorable property.” In fact, if you are satisfied, it is not poverty. It is not the man who has little, but the man who longs for more, who is truly poor. What difference does it make what a man keeps in his safe, or in his store, how large his herds are and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbor's property and counts not his past earnings but rather his hopes of future earnings? ? What is the appropriate limit for wealth? First, have what is necessary, and second, have what is sufficient.
Stay Strong. Stay Well.
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