Found this in an introduction to Philo. He lived from about 20 BCE – 40 CE. It amazes me how someone from two centuries ago can pretty much sum up life in the present age.

In at least one important passage Philo reveals something of his perspective on his life and work (On the Special Laws 3.1–6). Here Philo remembers that “There was once a time when, devoting my leisure to philosophy and to the contemplation of the world and the things in it, I reaped the fruit of excellent, and desirable, and blessed intellectual feelings….I appeared to be raised on high and borne aloft by a certain inspiration of the soul….â€? But this life was interrupted with “… the vast sea of the cares of public politics, in which I was and still am tossed about without being able to keep myself swimming at the top.â€? But all was not lost, for “… even in these circumstances I ought to give thanks to God, that though I am so overwhelmed by this flood, I am not wholly sunk and swallowed up in the depths. But I open the eyes of my soul … and I am irradiated with the light of wisdom…. Behold, therefore, I venture not only to study the sacred commands of Moses, but also with an ardent love of knowledge to investigate each separate one of them, and to endeavour to reveal and to explain to those who wish to understand them, things concerning them which are not known to the multitude.â€?

from Philo, o. A., & C. D. Yonge. The Works of Philo : Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1993.