Heed the god inside you. Seneca, Epistles 4.41.1-2

Seneca advises Lucilius to heed the inner deity that is his own personal conscience, or genius. Being a good person, by Seneca's interpretation of ancient lore here, requires each of us to heed an inner voice that keeps our good and bad deeds in memory, finding in both the motivation that we need to pursue the greatest deeds of which we are uniquely capable.

Facis rem optimam et tibi salutarem si, ut scribis, perseveras ire ad bonam mentem, quam stultum est optare cum possis a te impetrare. Non sunt ad caelum elevandae manus nec exorandus aedituus ut nos ad aurem simulacri, quasi magis exaudiri possimus, admittat: prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili: sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos; hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vero vir sine deo nemo est: an potest aliquis supra fortunam nisi ab illo adiutus exsurgere? Ille dat consilia magnifica et erecta. In unoquoque virorum bonorum

      quis deus incertum est, habitat deus (†).

You are doing good work, and would deserve a warm greeting from me, if you are living up to your written pledge and maintaining your progress on the road toward a sound mind. 'Tis foolish to waste time wishing for this mind, since you can get it on your own, from yourself. No need to raise your hands to heaven or secure the favor of some priest, so that he may introduce us to the ear of an empty image, as though we might be heard better there. The god is already near—with you and within you. I mean what I say, Lucilius. A holy spirit dwells inside us, watching and warding the good and evil that is ours. As we treat it, so in turn it treats us. Nobody becomes a good man without this god—or do you suppose there is anyone capable of rising above fortune without divine assistance? This god gives counsel that is noble and upright. In every good man, and each one alone,

      an unknown god doth make his home.

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(†) Vergil has the Arcadian exile Evander utter this line to the hero Aeneas as part of his description of the landscape where Rome will one day be built (Aeneid 8.351-4). In this original context, the passage is about the crown of the Capitoline hill, where in historical times the Romans built the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Hoc nemus, hunc, inquit, frondoso vertice collem

quis deus incertum est, habitat deus: Arcades ipsum

credunt se vidisse Iovem, cum saepe nigrantem

aegida concuteret dextra nimbosque cieret.

'This leafy grove,' he says, 'is home

'To a forest god by no name known.

'Here my Greeks will swear they've seen

'The face of Zeus, our thunder-king

'Shaking oft his darkling shield

'Driving clouds to storm the fields.'