Text

Latrunculis ludimus. In supervacuis subtilitas teritur: non faciunt bonos ista, sed doctos. Apertior res est, sapere, immo simplicior: paucis est ad mentem bonam uti litteris, sed nos ut cetera in supervacuum diffundimus, ita philosophiam ipsam. Quemadmodum omnium rerum, sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus: non vitae sed scholae discimus.

Translation

It's children's games we're playing. The sharpness and subtlety of thinking become dulled by superfluous problems; Discussions of this kind do not help us to live properly, but at most to speak learnedly. Life wisdom is more obvious than school wisdom; yes, let's say it straight out: it would be better if we could derive common sense from our scholarly education. But like all our other goods we squander on superfluous luxuries, so we squander our greatest asset, philosophy, on superfluous questions. As with the inordinate addiction to everything else, so we suffer from an excessive addiction to learning: not for life, but for school we learn.

Author

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

Reference

Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 106, 11-12, [Opera quae extant omnia, Tomus I, p. 614]

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Link

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_vitae_sed_scholae_discimus
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