Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 15

Haec in animo voluta, quae saepe audisti, saepe dixisti. Sed an vere audieris, an vere dixeris, effectu proba. Hoc enim turpissimum est, quod nobis obici solet, verba nos philosophiae, non opera tractare. Quid, tu nunc primum tibi mortem inminere scisti, nunc exilium, nunc dolorem? In haec natus es. Quicquid fieri potest, quasi futurum cogitemus.

Médite ces vérités mille fois entendues, mille fois répétées par toi : mais les as-tu franchement entendues, franchement répétées ? que les effets le prouvent. Car le plus honteux reproche est celui qu’on nous fait d’avoir une philosophie de
paroles, non d’actions. Eh quoi ! sais-tu d’aujourd’hui seulement que la mort, que l’exil, que la douleur planent sur toi ? C’est pour tout cela que tu es né. Pensons que tout ce qui peut arriver arrivera :

Ponder these words which you have often heard and often uttered. Moreover, prove by the result whether that which you have heard and uttered is true. For there is a very disgraceful charge often brought against our school, - that we deal with the words, and not with the deeds, of philosophy. What, have you only at this moment learned that death is hanging over your head, at this moment exile, at this moment grief? You were born to these perils. Let us think of everything that can happen as something which will happen.