Laudator Temporis Acti

Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings 7.2 ext. 2b (on Solon; tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey):

The same, seeing one of his friends plunged in grief, took him up to the citadel and told him to cast his eyes comprehensively around the buildings below. When he saw it was done, he said: "Now think to yourself how many mournings were under these roofs in times past and are in being today and shall dwell there in days to come; and stop bewailing the misfortunes of mortals as though they were peculiar to yourself." By that consolation he made it plain that cities are pitiful pens of human calamities.

idem, cum ex amicis quendam graviter maerentem videret, in arcem perduxit hortatusque est ut per omnes subiectorum aedificiorum partes oculos circumferret. quod ut factum animadvertit, 'cogita nunc tecum' inquit 'quam multi luctus sub his tectis et olim fuerint et hodieque versentur et insequentibus saeculis sint habitaturi, ac mitte mortalium incommoda tamquam propria deflere.' qua consolatione demonstravit urbes esse humanarum cladium consaepta miseranda.