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Single Idea 23345
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / e. Death
]
Full Idea
It is not pain or death that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death.
Gist of Idea
Don't be frightened of pain or death; only be frightened of fearing them
Source
Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 2.01.13)
Book Ref
Epictetus: 'The Discourses, The Handbook, Fragments', ed/tr. Gill,C [Everyman 1995], p.76
A Reaction
These two cases are quite different, I would say. I'm much more frightened of pain than I am of the fear of pain, and the opposite view seems absurd. About death, though, I think this is right. Mostly I'm with Spinoza: think about life, not death.
The
26 ideas
with the same theme
[significance of death for living people]:
6330
|
One with no use for life is wiser than one who values it
[Laozi (Lao Tzu)]
|
339
|
Men fear death as a great evil when it may be a great blessing
[Socrates]
|
344
|
If death is like a night of dreamless sleep, such nights are very pleasant
[Socrates]
|
5229
|
The more virtuous and happy a person is, the worse the prospect becomes of ending life
[Aristotle]
|
14054
|
Fearing death is absurd, because we are not present when it occurs
[Epicurus]
|
14053
|
It is absurd to fear the pain of death when you are not even facing it
[Epicurus]
|
14055
|
The wisdom that produces a good life also produces a good death
[Epicurus]
|
5726
|
The dead are no different from those who were never born
[Lucretius]
|
13294
|
We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same
[Seneca]
|
13299
|
Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well
[Seneca]
|
13300
|
It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past
[Seneca]
|
23339
|
I will die as becomes a person returning what he does not own
[Epictetus]
|
23345
|
Don't be frightened of pain or death; only be frightened of fearing them
[Epictetus]
|
16764
|
The soul conserves the body, as we see by its dissolution when the soul leaves
[Toletus]
|
7495
|
Apart from the fear, dying is an easy duty
[Montaigne]
|
16763
|
We don't die because the soul departs; the soul departs because the organs cease functioning
[Descartes]
|
19420
|
Death and generation are just transformations of an animal, augmented or diminished
[Leibniz]
|
19346
|
Most people facing death would happily re-live a similar life, with just a bit of variety
[Leibniz]
|
13173
|
Death is just the contraction of an animal
[Leibniz]
|
4177
|
Most people would probably choose non-existence at the end of their life, rather than relive the whole thing
[Schopenhauer]
|
14805
|
Is there any such thing as death among the lower organisms?
[Peirce]
|
20268
|
Most dying people have probably lost more important things than what they are about to lose
[Nietzsche]
|
3265
|
We don't worry about the time before we were born the way we worry about death
[Nagel]
|
4648
|
'Death' is best seen as irreversible loss of consciousness, since this is why we care about brain function
[Glover]
|
6866
|
It is disturbing if we become unreal when we die, but if time is unreal, then we remain real after death
[Le Poidevin]
|
9304
|
Death appears to be more frightening the less one has lived
[Svendsen]
|