Epictetus

“ And how else comes it that at the waxing and waning of the moon and at the approach and recession of the sun we see among the things that are on earth so great an alteration and change to the opposite? 5But are the plants and our own bodies so closely bound up with the universe, and do they so intimately share its affections, [1] and is not the same much more true of our own souls? ”

“ And yet, says one, I cannot follow all these things at one and the same time.—But does anyone go so far as to tell you this, namely, that you possess a faculty which is equal to that of Zeus? Yet none the less He has stationed by each man's side as guardian his particular genius, [3] —and has committed the man to his care,—and that too a guardian who never sleeps and is not to be beguiled. ”

“ All this you do, and is God not able to oversee all things and to be present with all and to have a certain communication from them all? 10Yet the sun is capable of illuminating so large a portion of the universe, and of leaving unilluminated only the small space which is no larger than can be covered by the shadow that the earth casts ”

“ And yet you have power to think about the divine dispensation and about each several item among things divine, and at the same time also about human affairs, and you have the faculty of being moved by myriads of matters at the same time both in your senses and in your intelligence, and at the same time you assent to some, while you dissent from others, or suspend judgement about them ”