Letters 64.3

Ye Gods, what strength and spirit one finds in him! This is not the case with all philosophers; there are some men of illustrious name whose writings are sapless. They lay down rules, they argue, and they quibble; they do not infuse spirit simply because they have no spirit. But when you come to read Sextius, you will say: “He is alive; he is strong; he is free; he is more than a man; he fills me with a mighty confidence before I close his book.”

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 64.3, translated by Richard Mott Gummere