“It is generally agreed that no activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied – not rhetoric or liberal studies – since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply, but rejects everything which is, so to speak, crammed into it.”

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XLIX: On the Shortness of Life

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Seneca the Younger 225
Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist -4–65 BC

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