It is a hard task to master the natural desires of life by a philosophical contempt of death, and to
convince the world that there is no hurt in it, and crush an opinion that was brought up with us from
our cradles.
The truth of it is, there is but one chain that holds all the world in bondage, and that is the love of
life. It is not that I propound that making of death so indifferent to us, as it is, whether a man's
hairs be even or odd; for what with self-love, and an implanted desire in every thing of preserving
itself, and a long acquaintance betwixt the soul and body, friends may be loth to part, and death
may carry an appearance of evil, though in truth it is itself no evil at all. Beside, that we are to go a
strange place in the dark, and under great uncertainties of our future state; so that people die in
terror, because they do not know whither they are to go, and they are apt to fancy the worst of
what they do not understand: these thoughts are indeed sufficient to startle a man of great
resolution without a wonderful tsupport from above. And, moreoever, our natural sruples and
infirmities are assisted by the wits and fancies of all ages, in their infamous and horrid description of
another world: nay, taking it for granted that there will be no reward and punishment, they are yet
more afraid of an annihilation than of hell itself.
It is the law of Nature, the tribute of mortals, and the remedy of all evils. It is only the disguise that
affrights us; as children that are terrified with a vizor.
There is nothing that Nature has made necessary which is more easy than death: we are longer a-
coming into the world than going out of it: and there is not any minute of our lives wherein we may
not reasonably expect it. Nay, it is but a moment'work the parting of the soul and body. What a
shame it is then to stand in fear of any thing so long that is over so soon?
Socrates was thirty days in prison after his sentence, and had time enough to have starved himself,
and so to have prevented the prison; but he gave the world the blessing of his life as long as he
could, and took that fatal graught in the meditation and contempt of death.
Marcellinus, do not trouble yourself, as if it were such a mighty business that you have now in
hand; it is nothing to live; all your servants do it, nay, your very beasts too; but to die honestly and
resolutely, that is a great point.
If it shall please God to add another day to our lives, let us thankfully receive it; but, however, it is
our happiest, and securest course so to compose ourselves tonight, that we may have no anxious
dependence upon tomorrow.
Death is the owrst that either the severity of laws, or the cruelty of tyrants, can impose upon us;
and it is the utmost extent of the dominion of Fortune. He that is fortified against that, must,
consequently, be superior to all other difficulties that are but in the way to it. Nay, and on some
occasions, it requires more courage to live than to die. He that isnot prepared for death shall be
perpetually troubled, as well with vain apprehension, as with real dangers. It is not death itself that
is dreadful, but the fear of it goes before it.
Madmen and children have no apprehension of death; and it were a shaem that our reason should
not do as much toward our selcurity as their folly.
It is the fear of our last hour that disquiets all the rest. By the justice of all constitutions, mankind is
condemned to a capital punishment; now, how despicable would that man appear who, being
setenced to death in common with the whole world, should only petition that he might be the last
man brought to the block?
Nature that begat us, expels us, and a better an a safer place is provided for us. And what is
death but a ceasing to be what we were before? We are kindled and put out: to cease to be, and
not to begin to be, is the same thing. We die daily, and while we are growing, our life decreases;
every moment that passes takes away part of it; all that is past is lost; nay, we divide with death
the very instant that we live. As the last sand i the glass does not measure the hour, but finishes it;
so the last moment that we live does not make up death, but concludes. There are some that pray
more earnestly for death than we do for life; but it is better to receive it cheerfully when it comes
rather than to hasten it before the time.
If death be at any time to be feared, it is always to be feared; but the way never to fear it, is to be
often thinking of it.
How miserable are those people that spend their lives in the dismal apprehensions of death! for
they are beset on all hands, and every minute in dread of a surprise.
Beside that it is a madness to fear a thing that is certain; for where there is no doubt, there is no
place for fear.
As if it were the number of years that makes death easy to us, and not the temper of the
mind.
It is the work of Fate to make us live long, but it is the business of virtue to make a short life
sufficient. Life is to be measured by action, not by time; a man may die old at thirty, and young
at fourscore: nay, the one lives after death, and the other perished before he died. I look upon
age among the effects of chance. How long I shall live is in the power of others, but it is in my
own how well. The largest space of time is to live till a man is wise.
It is childish to go out of the world groaning and wailing as we came into it. Our bodies must be
thrown away, as the secundine that wraps up the infant, the other being only the covering of the
soul; we shall then discover the secrets of Nature; the darkness shall be discussed, and our souls
irradiated with light and glory: a glory without a shadow; a glory that shall surround us, and from
whence we shall look down and see day and night, beneath us.
That death which we so much dread and decline, is not the determination, but the intermission of a
life, which will return again.
XXII
This life is only a prelude to eternity, where we are to expect another original, and another state of
things; we have no prospect of heaven here but at a distance; let us therefore expect our last and
decretory hour with courage. The last (I say) to our bodies, but not to our minds; our luggage we
leave behind us, and return as naked out of the world as we came into it. The day which we fear
as our last is but the birthday of our eternity; and it is the only way to it.
Death is as much a debt as money, and life is but a journey towards it: some dispatch it sooner,
others later, but we must all have the period.
He that will not follow shall be drawn by force: and is it not much better now to do that willingly
which we shall otherwise be made to do un spite of our hearts?
All that lies betwixt the cradle and the grave is uncertain.
Nay, the very present slips through our fingers, and there is not that moment which we can call our
own.
All things have theri seasons; they begin, they increase, and they die. The heavens and the earth
grow old, and are appointed their periods. That which we call death is but a pause or suspension,
and in truth a progress to life; only our thoughts look downward upon the body, and not forward
upon things to come. All things under the sun are mortal; cities, empires: and the time will come
when it shall be a question where they were, and perchance whether ever they had a being or
not.
It is the frequent thought of death that must fortify us against the necessity of it.
XXIII
To lament the death of a friend is both natural and just; a sigh or a tear I would allow his memory:
but no profuse or obstinate sorrow. Clamorous and public lamentations are not so much the
effects of grief as of vain-glory.
At the long -run, time cures all, but it were better done by moderation and wisdom.
...if Fate be inexorable, and death will keep what it has taken, gried is to no purpose. And yet I
would not advise insensibility and hardness; it were inhumanity, and not virtue, not to be moved at
the separation of familiar friends and relations: now, in such cases, we cannot commend ourselves,
we cannot forbear weeping, and we ought not to forbear: but let us not pass the bounds of
affection, and run into imitation; within these limits it is some ease to the mind.
A wise man gives way to tears in some cases, and cannot avoid them in others.
They may flow of their own accord, without derogating from the dignity of a wise man; who at the
same time both preserves his gravity, and obeys nature.
We may accuse Fate, but we cannot alter it; for it is hard and inexorable, and not to be removed
either with reproaches or tears. They may carry us to the dead, but never bring them back again
to us. If reason does not put an end to our sorrows, fortune never will...
To mourn without measure is folly, and not to mourn at all is insensibility. The best temper is
betwixt piety and reason; to be sensible, but neither transported nor cast down. He that can put
a stop to his tears and pleasures when he will is safe. It is an equal infelicity to be either too soft or
too hard; we are overcome by the one, and we are put to struggle with the other.
To forget one's friend, to bury the memory with the body, to lament out of measure, is all
inhuman.
The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.
Let us therefore make the best of our friends while we have them; for how long we shall keep
them is uncertain.
XXIV
The mind of man is naturally curious and restless; which is no wonder, considering their divine
original; for heavenly things are always in motion: witness the stars, and the orbs, which are
perpetually moving, rolling, and changing of place, and according to the law and appointment of
Nature.
...we lie under the protection of Heaven; and a poor cottage for a retreat is more worth than the
most magnificent temple, when that cottage is consecrated by an honest man under the guard of his
virtue.
It is the mind that makes us rich in a desart; and if the body be but kept alive, the soul enjoys all
spiritual felicities in abundance.
The body is but the prison or the clog of the mind, subjected to punishments, robberies, to no
violence. Is it that a man shall want garments of covering in banishment? The body is as easily
clothed as fed; and Nature has made nothing hard that is necessary. But if nothing will serve us
but rich embroideries and scarlet, it is none of Fortune's fault that we are poor, but our
own.
The very founder of the Roman empire was an exile: briefly, the whole world has been
transplanted, and one mutation treads upon the heel of another. That which one man desires, turns
another man's stomach; and he that proscribes me today, shall be cast out tomorrow.
Virtue may show itself as well in the bed as in the field; and he that cheerfully encounters the
terrors of death and corporal anguish, is as great a man as he that most generously hazards himself
in a battle.
It is troublesome, I know, at first, to abstain from the pleasures we have used to, and to endure
hunger and thirst; but in a little time we lose that which we do not desire.
In cases of extremity, let us call to mind the most eminent instances of patience and courage, and
turn thoughts fromour afflictions to the contemplation of virtue.
XXV
No man shall ever be poor that goes to himself for what he wants; and that is the readiest way to
riches. Nature, indeed, will have her due; but yet whatsoever is beyond necessity is precarious,
and not necessary. It is not her business to gratify the palate, but to satisfy a craving stomach.
Bread, when a man is hungry, does his work, let it be never so coarse; and water when he is dry;
let his thirst be quenched, and Nature is satidfied, no matter whence it comes, or whether he
drinks in gold, silver, or in the hollow of his hand.
No man can be poor that has enough; for the more he had the more he still coveted.
No man finds poverty a trouble to him, but he that thinks it so; and he that thinks it so, makes it
so.
He that is not content in poverty, would not be so neither in plenty; for the fault is not the thing, but
in the mind.
What can be happier than tha condition, both of mind and of fortune, from which we cannot
fall?
How happy is he that owes nothing but to himself, and only that which he can easily refuse or
easily pay! I do not reckon him poor that has but a little, but he is so that covets more; it is a fear
degree of plenty to have what is necessary. Whether had a man better find saturiety in want, or
hunger in pletny? It is not the augmenting of our fortunes, ntu the abating of our appetites, that
makes us rich.
He is the greater man that is honestly poor in the middle of plenty; but he is the more secure that is
free from temptation of that plenty, and has the least matter for another to design upon.
All I desire is, that my poverty may not be a burden to myself, or make me so to others; and that is
the best state fortune, that is neither directly necessitous, nor far from it. A mediocrity of fortune,
with a gentleness of mind, will preserve us from fear or envy; which is a desireable condition, for
no man wants power to do mischief. We never consider the blessing of coveting nothing, and the
glory of being full in ourselves, without depending upon Fortune.
...he that has least to lose has least to fear..
A man may lie as warm and as dry under a thatched roof as under a gilded.
The future is unceratin; and I had rather beg of myself not to desire anything, than of FOrtune to
bestow it.
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