A complete unit. Seneca, Epistles 4.34

Seneca praises Lucilius for showing the will to become a good person, someone who cannot be forced or obliged to act badly, no matter what happens.

Cresco et exsulto et discussa senectute recalesco quotiens ex iis quae agis ac scribis intellego quantum te ipse, nam turbam olim reliqueras, superieceris. Si agricolam arbor ad fructum perducta delectat, si pastor ex fetu gregis sui capit voluptatem, si alumnum suum nemo aliter intuetur quam ut adulescentiam illius suam iudicet, quid evenire credis iis qui ingenia educaverunt et quae tenera formaverunt adulta subito vident? Assero te mihi; meum opus es. Ego cum vidissem indolem tuam, inieci manum, exhortatus sum, addidi stimulos nec lente ire passus sum sed subinde incitavi; et nunc idem facio, sed iam currentem hortor et invicem hortantem.

Quid illud? inquis adhuc volo. In hoc plurimum est, non sic quomodo principia totius operis dimidium occupare dicuntur. Ita res animo constat; itaque pars magna bonitatis est velle fieri bonum. Scis quem bonum dicam? perfectum, absolutum, quem malum facere nulla vis, nulla necessitas possit. Hunc te prospicio, si perseveraveris et incubueris et id egeris ut omnia facta dictaque tua inter se congruant ac respondeant sibi et una forma percussa sint. Non est huius animus in recto cuius acta discordant. Vale.

I spring up and rejoice, casting aside my old age in a glow of returning youth every time I learn from your deeds and writings how much you have surpassed your old self, since you left the teeming crowd. If ever a tree trained to fruition delighted a farmer, if ever a shepherd took pleasure in the offspring of his flock, if every master regards the budding youth of a pupil as though it were his own, how do you suppose they must feel who have educated young minds, when they see these minds, whose tenderness they once shaped, turned in a moment to mature adulthood? I claim you as my own; you are my masterwork. After I had seen your natural character, I extended my hand to you, exhorting and inciting you to travel philosophy's road. I wouldn't let you go slowly, but pricked you constantly on the way. As I do now! But these days my exhortations find you already running hard, and you exhort me right back.

“What's this you recommend?” you say. “I'm already all in!” There is more in this attitude of yours than we find in the old saying, that well begun is half done. Your attitude shows a mind ready for the work, and that is the greater part of real goodness: wanting to become good. Do you know what man I call good? The one who is complete, a unit standing alone: no violence or necessity can make him do any wicked deed. This is the kind of person I see you becoming, if you persevere and devote yourself, making all your words and deeds agree with one another harmoniously, so that they express a single, beautiful form that is your own. A man's mind can't be right if his deeds disagree with its judgments. Farewell.