Sublime

“The first thing to do—don’t get worked up. For everything happens according to the nature of all things, and in a short time you’ll be nobody and nowhere, even as the great emperors Hadrian and Augustus are now. The next thing to do—consider carefully the task at hand for what it is, while remembering that your purpose is to be a good human being.

In the mid-first century AD, Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca said, “If wisdom were offered me with the provision that I should keep it shut up and refrain from declaring it, I should refuse. There’s no delight in owning anything unshared.”

"Contented poverty is an honourable estate."

‘No man’s good by accident. Virtue has to be learnt. Pleasure is a poor and petty thing. No value should be set on it: it’s something we share with dumb animals – the minutest, most insignificant creatures scutter after it. Glory’s an empty, changeable thing, as fickle as the weather. Poverty’s no evil to anyone unless he kicks against it. Death is