To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not. For it is to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessings of human beings. And yet people fear it as if they knew for certain it is the greatest evil.
The wise man seeks death all his life, and for this reason death is not terrifying to him.
Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.
Be of good hope in the face of death. Believe in this one truth for certain, that no evil can befall a good man either in life or death, and that his fate is not a matter of indifference to the gods.
Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death
To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?
It is not difficult to avoid death. It is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.
The soul is pure when it leaves the body and drags nothing bodily with it, by virtue of having no willing association with the body in life but avoiding it.......Practicing philosophy in the right way is a training to die easily.
The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.
