Seneca, Moral Letter 26, “On Old Age and Death”

 

“. . . it bids me distinguish carefully what I cannot do and what I do not want to do. For why should one complain or regard it as a disadvantage, if powers which ought to come to an end have failed? . . . 

But is there any better end to it all than to glide off to one's proper haven, when nature slips the cable? . . . 

Epicurus will oblige me with these words: "Think on death," or rather, if you prefer the phrase, on "migration to heaven." . . . In saying this, he bids us think on freedom. He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery; he is above any external power, or, at any rate, he is beyond it. What terrors have prisons and bonds and bars for him? His way out is clear. There is only one chain which binds us to life, and that is the love of life. The chain may not be cast off, but it may be rubbed away, so that, when necessity shall demand, nothing may retard or hinder us from being ready to do at once that which at some time we are bound to do.” (Seneca, Moral Letter 26, “On Old Age and Death”)