On the Happy Life, Section 12

Seneca — The Senator

So let's stop mixing things that don't belong together. Don't connect pleasure with virtue — this mistake attracts the worst kind of people. The reckless drunk who's always drinking and reeking of wine thinks he's living virtuously because he knows he's living pleasurably. He's heard that pleasure can't exist without virtue. So he calls his vices "wisdom" and shows off what he should be hiding. Epicurus doesn't encourage people to go wild. But corrupt people hide their bad behavior behind philosophy. They rush to schools where they hear pleasure being praised. They don't think about how sober and moderate Epicurus's idea of pleasure actually is — and I believe it truly is moderate. They just hear his name and rush toward it, looking for protection and cover for their vices.

Seneca — The Senator Original

Let them no longer, then, join incongruous matters together, or connect pleasure with virtue, a mistake whereby they court the worst of men. The reckless profligate, always in liquor and belching out the fumes of wine, believes that he lives with virtue, because he knows that he lives with pleasure, for he hears it said that pleasure cannot exist apart from virtue; consequently he dubs his vices with the title of wisdom and parades all that he ought to conceal. So, men are not encouraged by Epicurus to run riot, but the vicious hide their excesses in the lap of philosophy, and flock to the schools in which they hear the praises of pleasure. They do not consider how sober and temperate—for so, by Hercules, I believe it to be—that "pleasure" of Epicurus is, but they rush at his mere name, seeking to obtain some protection and cloak for their vices.