Seneca, Epistulae 104:
“If you wish to be stripped of your vices, you must withdraw from the exemplars of vice. The miser, the corrupter, the savage, the fraud – these would all harm you much if they had merely been near you, but instead they lurk inside you. Transition to better examples: live with the Catos, live with Laelius, with Tubero. If you would even like to take up quarters with the Greeks, spend some time with Socrates and Zeno: the first will teach you how to die when it is necessary, and the second before it is necessary. Live with Chrysippus and Posidonius: they will give you the knowledge of human and divine things. They will goad you on to work, and will instruct you not just to speak knowledgeably and cast off your words for the delight of the audience, but also to harden your mind and steel it against threats. There is one safe harbor in this storm-tossed and turbid life, and that is to scorn the future, to stand confidently, and to be prepared not to hide and turn your back, but to take the slings and arrows of Fortune straight to the chest.”
Si velis vitiis exui, longe a vitiorum exemplis recedendumest. Avarus, corruptor, saevus, fraudulentus, multum nocituri si propea te fuissent, intra te sunt. Ad meliores transi: cum Catonibus vive, cum Laelio, cum Tuberone. Quod si convivere etiam Graecis iuvat, cum Socrate, cum Zenone versare: alter te docebit mori si necesse erit, alter antequamnecesse erit. Vive cum Chrysippo, cum Posidonio: hi tibi tradent humanorum divinorumque notitiam, hi iubebunt in opere esse nec tantum scite loqui et in oblectationem audientium verba iactare, sed animum indurare et adversus minas erigere. Unus est enim huius vitae fluctuantis et turbidae portus eventura contemnere, stare fidenter ac paratum tela fortunae adverso pectore excipere, non latitantem nec tergiversantem.
