Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 3

Felicem vocabant; quid ergo? Erat? Ne illud quidem curo, quod quibusdam nimis horridi animi videtur et tetrici. Ariston aiebat malle se adulescentem tristem quam hilarem et amabilem turbae. Vinum enim bonum fieri, quod recens durum et asperum visum est; non pati aetatem, quod in dolio placuit. Sine eum tristem appellent et inimicum processibus suis; bene se dabit in vetustate ipsa tristitia, perseveret modo colere virtutem, perbibere liberalia studia, non illa, quibus perfundi satis est, sed haec, quibus tingendus est animus.

Je ne m’inquiète même pas de ce que quelques-uns le trouvent d’humeur trop farouche et maussade. Ariston disait : « J’aime mieux un jeune homme trop sérieux que trop gai et aimable pour tout le monde. Un vin rude et âpre en sa nouveauté finit par se faire bon ; celui qui flatte dans la cuve même ne supporte point l’âge. » Laisse ton ami passer pour mélancolique et ennemi de son avancement ; cette mélancolie avec le temps doit tourner à bien.

Even the fact that to certain persons he seems a man of a very rough and gloomy cast of mind, does not trouble me. Aristo used to say that he preferred a youth of stern disposition to one who was a jolly fellow and agreeable to the crowd. “For,” he added, “wine which, when new, seemed harsh and sour, becomes good wine; but that which tasted well at the vintage cannot stand age.” So let them call him stern and a foe to his own advancement. It is just this sternness that will go well when it is aged, provided only that he continues to cherish virtue and to absorb thoroughly the studies which make for culture, - not those with which it is sufficient for a man to sprinkle himself, but those in which the mind should be steeped.