Is it necessary to live a hidden life?
Epicurus used the expression “Life hidden.” He was talking about public affairs, i.e. politics. That is, not to interfere in the government of the city, for example.
→ Quotes on Secrecy
But even Epicurus did not live totally hidden. Secrecy is terrible for the human being, and even the one who recommended others to live hidden, precisely recommended it to others and shared his knowledge, his advice. He did not keep it a secret.
Thus in the French translation of D. RICHARD available on line, one finds in Plutarch, Moral Works, Volume V:
He who first advanced this maxim: Hide your life, did not want himself to remain unknown. He only published it so that it would be known that he had said something more sensible than others. By exhorting us to live in obscurity, he has effected an unjust reputation; for, in my opinion,
A wise man is hateful if he is not hateful to himself.
Plutarch – Moral Works – Volume V
We can also read a paragraph which condemns a little more the idea of living one’s life secretly:
So it is with the genius of man: sunk in obscurity and oblivion, it contracts rust and grows old. A sterile rest, an idle life, weakens not only the bodies, but the spirits; and as stagnant waters hidden under the shade of trees become corrupted for lack of movement, so, in a quiet and obscure life, which does not put into activity the useful dispositions that we have, the natural faculties alter and grow old.
Plutarch – Moral Works – Volume V
