For nature makes us free and unrestrained, but we bind and confine immure and force ourselves into small and scanty space.
 Plutarch, Moralia (c. 100 AD). copy citation

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Author Plutarch
Source Moralia
Topic force space
Date c. 100 AD
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Arthur Richard Shilleto
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23639/23639-h/23639-h.htm

Context

“And yet we laugh at the stupidity of one who asserts that the moon shines brighter at Athens than at Corinth, though in a sort we are in the same case ourselves, when in a strange land we look on the earth, the sea, the air, the sky, as if we doubted whether or not they were different from those we had been accustomed to. For nature makes us free and unrestrained, but we bind and confine immure and force ourselves into small and scanty space. Then too we laugh at the Persian kings, who, if the story be true, drink only of the water of the Choaspes, thus making the rest of the world waterless as far as they are concerned, but when we migrate to other places, we desire the water of the Cephisus, or we yearn for the Eurotas, or Taygetus, or Parnassus, and so make the whole world for ourselves houseless and homeless.” source