Somnium Scipionis, Part XXIII

“Wherefore if you will despair of a return into this place, in which all things are for great and outstanding men, of how little value at last is that glory of men which can hardly extend to the small part of a single year? Therefore if you will wish to look on high and gaze at this seat and eternal home, you should not give yourself over to conversations of the crowd, nor should you place hope of your things in human rewards; it is necessary that virtue itself draw you to true glory with its own enticements; what others might be saying about you, let them themselves see to it, but they will speak nevertheless. But all speech, even that, is girded by these narrow strips of the regions which you see, never about anybody was it everlasting, it is overwhelmed by the destruction of men, and it is extinguished by the forgetfulness of prosperity.”