Letters 12.10

But now I ought to close my letter. “What?” you say; “shall it come to me without any little offering?” Be not afraid; it brings something,—nay, more than something, a great deal. For what is more noble than the following saying of which I make this letter the bearer: “It is wrong to live under constraint; but no man is constrained to live under constraint.” Of course not. On all sides lie many short and simple paths to freedom; and let us thank God that no man can be kept in life. We may spurn the very constraints that hold us.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 12.10, translated by Richard Mott Gummere