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Lucius Annaeus Seneca (-5 - +65)

Epistula LXXVIII.
Toto contra ille pugnet animo; vincetur, si cesserit, vincet, si se contra dolorem suum intenderit. Nunc hoc plerique faciunt, adtrahunt in se ruinam, cui obstandum est. Istud quod premit, quod inpendet, quod urget, si subducere te coeperis, sequetur et gravius incumbet; si contra steteris et obniti volueris, repelletur. …
[Let such a man fight against them with all his might: if he once gives way, he will be vanquished; but if he strives against his sufferings, he will conquer. As it is, however, what most men do is to drag down upon their own heads a falling ruin which they ought to try to support. If you begin to withdraw your support from that which thrusts toward you and totters and is ready to plunge, it will follow you and lean more heavily upon you; but if you hold your ground and make up your mind to push against it, it will be forced back. …]
(…., Ad Lucilium Epistulae morales, London 1970, p. 190 / 191.)

G. Picht (1965-6)

Wer eine Geschichte der Philosophie in die Hand nimmt und sie vernünftig benutzen will, der muß wissen, was er von ihr erwarten darf und was nicht. Ein Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie verhält sich zur Sache selbst, nämlich zur Philosophie, nicht anders als ein Lehrbuch der Musikgeschichte zur Sache selbst, nämlich zur klingenden Musik. Sie können aus einem solchen Lehrbuch, ähnlich wie aus einer Musikgeschichte, eine Fülle von Kenntnissen erwerben, die zum Verständnis der Philosophie beziehungsweise der Musik wichtig, ja unentbehrlich sind. Aber so wenig wie die Musik als solche in einer Musikgeschichte zum Klingen kommt, so wenig finden sie in den Büchern über die Philosophie das, worum es doch geht, nämlich die Philosophie als solche. Wie die Musik, so ist auch die Philosophie nicht ein Gegenstand, den man vorfinden und zur Kenntnis nehmen kann. Sie ist vielmehr, ähnlich wie die Musik, ein Geschehen, das sich in unserer Mitte ereignet.
(5969, Kants Religionsphilosophie, Stuttgart 1985, S. 9.)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (-5 – +65)

Epistula LXXVIII.
Toto contra ille pugnet animo; vincetur, si cesserit, vincet, si se contra dolorem suum intenderit. Nunc hoc plerique faciunt, adtrahunt in se ruinam, cui obstandum est. Istud quod premit, quod inpendet, quod urget, si subducere te coeperis, sequetur et gravius incumbet; si contra steteris et obniti volueris, repelletur. ...
Let such a man fight against them with all his might: if he once gives way, he will be vanquished; but if he strives against his sufferings, he will conquer. As it is, however, what most men do is to drag down upon their own heads a falling ruin which they ought to try to support. If you begin to withdraw your support from that which thrusts toward you and totters and is ready to plunge, it will follow you and lean more heavily upon you; but if you hold your ground and make up your mind to push against it, it will be forced back. ...
(...., Ad Lucilium Epistulae morales, London 1970, p. 190 / 191.)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (60)

Itaque dum incipit esse mentis tuae, interim hoc consilio sapientium utere, ut magis ad rem existimes pertinere, quis, quam quid acceperit.
(6307, Ad Lucilium epistulae morales I, Cambridge Mass. + London1979, LIX, p. 132.)
Therefore, while you are beginning to call your mind your own, meantime apply this maxim of the wise: consider that it is more important who receives a thing, than what it is he receives.
(tamtéž, str. 131, překlad: Richard M. Gummere.)