"You need to reflect whether your nature is more suited to participation in affairs or to leisurely study and contemplation, and you need to turn to that course to which the force of your natural ability shall guide you: Isocrates laid his hand on Ephorus' shoulder and led him away from the forum, thinking he would be more of use in writing the records of history. Natural abilities do not respond well to compulsion; when Nature is in opposition, labour is fruitless."
--Seneca, "On the Tranquility of the Mind"
(I dispute his characterization of study as "leisurely")
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