“More excellent than the austere, more excellent even than men of knowledge is the Ascetic deemed; more excellent than workers is the Ascetic; therefore be thou Ascetic, Arjuna.”

Source: The Bhagavadgītā (1973), p. 169–70. (12.)

De Libero Arbitrio (388 - 395)

Source: The Bhagavadgītā (1973), p. 95. (1.)

2 - 4
Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures
Context: Things essentially incorporeal, because they are more excellent than all body and place, are every where, not with interval, but impartibly.
Things essentially incorporeal are not locally present with bodies but are present with them when they please; by verging towards them so far as they are naturally adapted so to verge. They are not, however, present with them locally, but through habitude, proximity, and alliance.
Things essentially incorporeal, are not present with bodies, by hypostasis and essence; for they are not mingled with bodies. But they impart a certain power which is proximate to bodies, through verging towards them. For tendency constitutes a certain secondary power proximate to bodies.

Life of Alexander
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Quoted by Plutarch in Life of Alexander http://books.google.com/books?id=vWIOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22for+my+part+I+assure+you+I+had+rather+excel+others+in+the+knowledge+of+what+is+excellent+than+in+the+extent+of+my+power+and+dominion%22&pg=PA167#v=onepage from Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden (1683)

Variant: The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel, are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.

Alexander, sec. 7
Parallel Lives

Book VII, 7.66-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII