Letter 461: The philosophers who claim to have abolished passion altogether have not, in my view, achieved virtue — they have...

Nature is bound by necessity and by fixed limits, but the will is set free and honored with self-determination. Why, then, do you beautify the body and neglect the soul? Though you contrive ten thousand devices, you will not make an ugly body shapely. But you could more easily lead the soul up to the very summit of beauty, if you so wished. And the one thing, even were it possible, would be useless and a cause of envy; the other is both profitable, and superior to envy, and beyond the reach of malice. But if you think it difficult to climb up to the summit of virtue, there are, above all, those who have accomplished even this, and who from the depths of vice have ascended to the height of virtue. And if this seems to you to be difficult, then at least withdraw from vice, and lay hold of the road that leads to virtue; for to differ even a little from one's former self ought not to be reckoned a little thing. And this will come about if you should be willing neither yourself to engage in wicked pursuits, nor to associate with those who do engage in them, but should join yourself to good deeds and to good men. For the good one must not flee even when one is hated by them, but the wicked one must flee even when one is loved by them.