Dream of Scipio and Stoic Paradoxes

Since it is clear, therefore, that what moves itself is eternal, who would deny that this nature has been bestowed upon souls? For everything is inanimate that is moved by an external impulse. But that which is animate is set in motion by an internal, its own, impulse. For this is the peculiar nature and power of the soul, which, if it is the only thing of all that moves itself, it is certainly not born and is eternal. Exercise this soul in the best pursuits. The best are those regarding the safety of the fatherland, by which stirred and exercised, the soul will fly more swiftly into this seat and its home. It will do this more quickly if, even now while it is enclosed in the body, it reaches out beyond it, and contemplating those things that are outside, it abstracts itself as much as possible from the body. For the souls of those who have surrendered themselves to the pleasures of the body, and have made themselves, as it were, servants to them, and, having obeyed the impulses of their desires, have violated the laws of gods and men, once they have slipped from their bodies, they wander around the earth itself, and they do not return to this place until they have been agitated for many centuries. He departed. I awoke from sleep.

The Paradoxes of Marcus Tullius Cicero.

I have observed

I have often observed, Brutus, your grandfather Cato, when he was speaking in the Senate, treating grave subjects from philosophy, diverging from this public and forensic custom, but yet achieving by his speaking that even those things seemed plausible to the people. This is a greater thing for him than it is for you or for me, because we use that philosophy more which has produced a wealth of eloquence, and in which things are said that do not much differ from popular opinion. But Cato, in my judgment, is a perfect Stoic and holds opinions that are not truly approved by the crowd, and he is in that school which follows no flower of oratory, neither expands an argument, but with tiny questionings and as it were points, he accomplishes what he set out to do, but there is nothing so incredible that it cannot be made probable by speaking, nothing so rough, so unrefined, that it cannot shine through speech, and as it were be polished.