6.
For there are many of our toga-clad citizens to whom peace brings more trouble than war.
Or do those, think you, owe as much as we do for the peace they enjoy, who spend it in drunkenness, or in lust, or in other vices which it were worth even a war to interrupt?
No, not unless you think that the wise man is so unfair as to believe that as an individual he owes nothing in return for the advantages which he enjoys with all the rest.
I owe a great debt to the sun and to the moon; and yet they do not rise for me alone.
I am personally beholden to the seasons and to the god who controls them, although in no respect have they been apportioned for my benefit.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On philosophers and kings
Location: Chapter 73, Section 6
Content:
6.
For there are many of our toga-clad citizens to whom peace brings more trouble than war.
Or do those, think you, owe as much as we do for the peace they enjoy, who spend it in drunkenness, or in lust, or in other vices which it were worth even a war to interrupt?
No, not unless you think that the wise man is so unfair as to believe that as an individual he owes nothing in return for the advantages which he enjoys with all the rest.
I owe a great debt to the sun and to the moon; and yet they do not rise for me alone.
I am personally beholden to the seasons and to the god who controls them, although in no respect have they been apportioned for my benefit.