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65 AD·Rome, Italy

I may become a poor man; I shall then be one among many. I may be exiled; I shall then regard myself as born in the place to which I shall be sent. They may put me in chains. What then? Am I free from bonds now? Behold this clogging burden of a body, to which nature has fettered me! “I shall die,” you say; you mean to say “I shall cease to run the risk of sickness; I shall cease to run the risk of imprisonment; I shall cease to run the risk of death.”

Read the full letter→Letter IX · On Philosophy and Friendship

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Seneca·65 AD

Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardships of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.

Henry David Thoreau·1863

Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast? We are a nation of politicians, concerned about the outmost defences only of freedom. It is our children's children who may perchance be really free.

Zhuangzi·300 BC

Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!

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More from Seneca

65 AD

It is not the man who has too little who is poor, but the one who hankers after more.

54 AD·Rome

Through hardship to the stars.

65 AD

Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides.

Locus

Rome, Italy

Tempus