A passage from Hierocles
Hierocles, Elements of Ethics 1.2
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Just as we are attached to ourselves, so we are naturally attached to our children, our parents, our brothers, our wife, and our fellow-citizens. The circles of concern spread outward.
Related passages
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Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.
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At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work — as a human being.'
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It is a man's special privilege to love even those who wrong him.