For this also is a weakness, to be vexed at them, as well as to be diverted from thy course of action and to give way through fear; for both are equally deserters from their post,--the man who does it through fear, and the man who is alienated from him who is by nature a kinsman and a friend.
In his personal reflections, this passage identifies both fear and alienation from kinsmen as forms of weakness and dereliction of duty.
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What remains, except to enjoy life by joining one good thing to another so as not to leave even the smallest intervals between?
But intellect in a peculiar manner tends to that which is of the same kin, and combines with it, and the feeling for communion is not interrupted.
There is one light of the sun, though it is interrupted by walls, mountains, and other things infinite.
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