The only people who truly have leisure are those who study philosophy. They are the only ones who really live. They don't just enjoy their own lifetime — they claim every century as their own. All the years that passed before them belong to them too. Unless we are completely ungrateful, we should see these great thinkers — the founders of schools of wisdom — as having been born for our benefit. They prepared life for us. Thanks to their hard work, we can see the most beautiful truths that they brought out of darkness into light.
The only persons who are really at leisure are those who devote themselves to philosophy: and they alone really live: for they do not merely enjoy their own lifetime, but they annex every century to their own: all the years which have passed before them belong to them. Unless we are the most ungrateful creatures in the world, we shall regard these noblest of men, the founders of divine schools of thought, as having been born for us, and having prepared life for us: we are led by the labour of others to behold most beautiful things which have been brought out of darkness into light;