If our spirit has only scorn for whatever happens to us, good or bad; if it has risen above fears; if, even in its eagerness, it ceases to imagine limitless prospects, and wisely seeks riches only in itself; if it no longer dreads anything from man or god, knowing that it has little to fear from man, and nothing from god; if it despises everything that is at once the splendor and the torment of our existence; if it has come to see clearly that death in itself is not an evil, and that it rather puts an end to our many misfortunes; if it has devoted itself solely to excellence and finds every path leading to it smooth; if, as a social animal born for the good of all, it considers the whole world as a single, self-same family--then it has escaped from tempests and set foot on firm ground under a clear sky. It knows everything that is useful and indispensable to know. It has retreated into its fortress.
--Seneca, Bk. VII, Ch. 1, On Benefits.
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