Seneca, Moral Epistle 35.1
“When I encourage you so sternly to study, I am pursuing my own interest. I want to have you as a friend–but this can’t happen unless you keep up as you started, with your self-improvement. Now, while you may love me, you are not my friend. “Wait, what?” you say, “do these words mean different things? truly, they are completely different.
Someone who is a friend loves you; but everyone who loves you isn’t necessarily a friend. Friendship is always useful, but sometimes love also hurts. Forge ahead for this reason if for no other: to learn how to love.”
Cum te tam valde rogo, ut studeas, meum negotium ago; habere te amicum volo, quod contingere mihi, nisi pergis ut coepisti excolere te, non potest. Nunc enim amas me, amicus non es. “Quid ergo? Haec inter se diversa sunt?” Immo dissimilia. Qui amicus est, amat; qui amat, non utique amicus est. Itaque amicitia semper prodest, amor aliquando etiam nocet. Si nihil aliud, ob hoc profice, ut amare discas.
