death and mortality
idea · 3 works · 3 mentions · 6 anchored passages
death · dissolution · dying · the last day · the trial of this condition
in the texts
Barlaam and Josaphat
The inevitability and uncertainty of death as a source of dread and philosophical inquiry.
But still our nature was enslaved to the self-rule of error, and death reigned over men, sending all, by the tyranny of the devil and the condemnation of Hades, on their way.
"Unless death takes someone away from these things first, it is impossible, as the years go on, not to come to the trial of this condition.
And who will keep my memory after death, since time gives all things over to oblivion?
Meditations
The inevitability and nature of death, treated as something to accept without fear.
He who fears death fears either to lose all sensation or to gain a sensation of another kind.
If it remains here and changes here, it is also dissolved here into its own parts, which are elements of the universe and of you.
All of a day, dead long since;
Letters to Lucilius
The Stoic theme of confronting death daily and viewing life as composed of equal, self-contained days each approaching the end equally.
But we are mistaken in fearing the last day, since each day contributes equally toward death.
The greatest proof, I say, my dear Lucilius, of a mind coming from a loftier seat, is if it judges these things among which it dwells to be lowly and narrow, if it does not fear to depart.
for daily we stand nearer to the last, and every hour drives us toward that point from which we must fall.