Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 6

Qui multum habet, plus cupit; quod est argumentum nondum illum satis habere; qui satis habet, consecutus est, quod numquam diviti contigit, finem. An has ideo non putas esse divitias, quia propter illas nemo proscriptus est? Quia propter illas nulli venenum filius, nulli uxor inpegit? Quia in bello tutae sunt? Quia in pace otiosae? Quia nec habere illas periculosum est nec operosum disponere?

Lequel vaut mieux d’avoir beaucoup ou d’avoir assez ? Qui a beaucoup désire davantage, preuve qu’il n’a point encore assez. Qui possède assez a obtenu ce que jamais riche n’a atteint, le terme du désir. Tu ne crois pas aux richesses du sage ! Est-ce parce qu’elles ne font proscrire personne ; parce qu’elles ne poussent point le fils à empoisonner son père, et la femme son mari ; parce que dans la guerre elles sont à l’abri, et dans la paix libres de soins ; parce qu’elles ne sont ni dangereuses à posséder, ni fatigantes à régir ?

Would you rather have much, or enough? He who has much desires more - a proof that he has not yet acquired enough; but he who has enough has attained that which never fell to the rich man’s lot - a stopping-point. Do you think that this condition to which I refer is not riches, just because no man has ever been proscribed as a result of possessing them? Or because sons and wives have never thrust poison down one’s throat for that reason? Or because in war-time these riches are unmolested? Or because they bring leisure in time of peace? Or because it is not dangerous to possess them, or troublesome to invest them?