Seneca, Moral Epistles 41.1-2
“You are doing the best thing, the heathy thing, for yourself if, as you write, you persist in pursuing a good state of mind. This is something it is foolish to hope for, when you are capable of achieving it on your own. We don’t need to raise our hands to heaven or to go beg in a temple to approach the idol’s ear, as if we can be heard better in this way. No, God is near us, with us, inside us.
I say it this way, Lucilius: a sacred force sits within us as a witness of our good and evil and a guardian. It handles us, the way we handle it. Really, no person is good without God, how else can someone surpass fortune unless god helps them rise up?”
Facis rem optimam et tibi salutarem, si, ut scribis, perseveras ire ad bonam mentem, quam stultum est optare, cum possis a te impetrare. Non sunt ad caelum elevandae manus nec exorandus aedituus, ut nos ad aurem simulacri, quasi magis exaudiri possimus, admittat; prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus est.
Ita dico, Lucili: sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos. Hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vero vir sine deo nemo est; an potest aliquis supra fortunam nisi ab illo adiutus exurgere?
