Date: 45 B.C.

"sed tamen nullum theatrum virtuti conscientia maius est" [But yet there is no greater theatre for virtue than one's own consciousness.]

— Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C. - 43 B.C.)

Date: c. 43 AD

"It is the mind that makes us rich; this goes with us into exile, and in the wildest wilderness, having found there all that the body needs for its sustenance, it itself overflows in the enjoyment of its own goods."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: c. 43 AD

"Meanwhile, hampered by mortal limbs and encompassed by the heavy burden of the flesh, it surveys, as best it can, the things of heaven in swift and winged thought."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: c. 43 AD

"And so the mind can never suffer exile, since it is free, kindred to the gods, and at home in every world and every age; for its thought ranges over all heaven and projects itself into all past and future time."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: c. 43 AD

"This poor body, the prison and fetter of the soul, is tossed hither and thither upon it punishments, upon it robberies, upon it diseases work their will. But the soul itself is sacred and eternal, and upon it no hand can be laid."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: c. 43 AD

"Those things that men's untutored hearts revere, sunk in the bondage of their bodies--jewels, gold, silver, and polished tables, huge and round--all these are earthly dross, for which the untainted spirit, conscious of its own nature, can have no love, since it is itself light and uncumbered, wa...

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: w. 56-64

"It is a mistake to imagine that slavery pervades a man's whole being; the better part of him is exempt from it: the body indeed is subjected and in the power of a master, but the mind is independent, and indeed is so free and wild, that it cannot be restrained even by this prison of the body, wh...

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: w. 56-64

"It is, therefore, only the body which misfortune hands over to a master, and which he buys and sells; this inward part cannot be transferred as a chattel."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: 58

"See, on the other hand, how evil and guilty a slavery the man is forced to serve who is dominated in turn by pleasures and pains, those most untrustworthy and passionate of masters."

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)

Date: 58

"To live happily, then, is the same thing as to live according to Nature: what this may be, I will explain. If we guard the endowments of the body and the advantages of nature with care and fearlessness, as things soon to depart and given to us only for a day; if we do not fall under their domini...

— Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 B.C. - A.D. 65)