"To lie in undisturbed calm, with nothing to rouse yourself toward, nothing to strive after, nothing to denounce or contend against, testing the firmness of your mind: that is not tranquility; it is enfeeblement"

- Seneca, Letters 67.14


"The understanding I have of my responsibility to the human race comes first, and it counts for more than my responsibility to any one person"

- Seneca, On Benefits, VII, 19.9

"There are indeed several degrees of fellowship among men. To move from the one that is unlimited, next there is a closer one of the same race, tribe and tongue, through which men are bound strongly to one another. More intimate still is that of the same city, as citizens have many things that are shared with one another: the forum, temples, porticoes and roads, laws and legal rights, law-courts and political elections; and besides these acquaintances and companionship, and those business and commercial transactions that many of them make with many others. A tie narrower still is that of the fellowship between relations: moving from that vast fellowship of the human race we end up with a confined and limited one".

- Cicero, On Duties, I.53