Life and Death
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3.Whether death is an evil
3a.Socratic doubt: death may be the greatest good
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 17Fear of death is a pretence of wisdom, since no one knows whether death may be the greatest good.read · scan
- p. 25He doesn't know whether death is good or evil, so won't propose an evil to avoid it.read · scan
- p. 27–28Death is not an evil; the oracle's silence proves what has happened is a good.read · scan
- p. 28Death is a gain either as dreamless sleep or as a journey to another world.read · scan
- p. 28–30Be of good cheer about death; no evil can happen to a good man in life or after.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 143–144To be or not to be: Hamlet weighs suffering life against death's sleep, the undiscovered country.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 143Death may be an awakening from our supposed waking life.read · scan
3b.The Stoic view that death is no evil but natural
See also: Nature 3b
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 132Death is only loss of the body, the last garment; Nature, not Nero, threatens.read · scan
- p. 136Sickness and early death are to be accepted for the sake of the whole.read · scan
- p. 138Accept sickness and death as becomes a God.read · scan
- p. 142Bidding farewell to the Sun and Moon should not bring tears.read · scan
- p. 149Ready to depart from the great assembly of men when God wills.read · scan
- p. 158Death may come when it will; no one can be cast beyond the world.read · scan
- p. 162The world is one city where some must perish for others to succeed; the hero does not lament leaving orphans, since God is Father to all.read · scan
- p. 162–163Every life is a long and various warfare in which one must obey the Commander's orders.read · scan
- p. 164–165Departing life is obedience to God's summons, accepted with thanks.read · scan
- p. 165Ready to depart when God no longer needs him.read · scan
- p. 167Depart from life cheerfully and thankfully like leaving a festival, giving place to others.read · scan
- p. 180Death is no evil and need not bring shame.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 202Death and life are indifferent things.read · scan
- p. 202Death is merely an operation of nature serving nature's purposes; fear of it is childish.read · scan
- p. 204–205Await death cheerfully as mere dissolution of the elements; nothing natural is evil.read · scan
- p. 207Be ready for the signal summoning one from life.read · scan
- p. 208Such a man neither pursues nor flees death and departs as readily as doing any decent act.read · scan
- p. 213Death is a mystery of nature like generation, composition and decomposition; nothing to be ashamed of.read · scan
- p. 225–226Wait for natural dissolution without vexation at delay.read · scan
- p. 245Fear of change is unreasonable since nothing can occur without change, which is natural and necessary for the universe, including oneself.read · scan
- p. 248For a mind viewing all time and substance, human life is not great and death no evil; life is reaped like corn.read · scan
- p. 256Judge men by their opinions about death and life, among other things, and then their actions are not strange.read · scan
- p. 264Life and death, honour and dishonour are employed equally by nature and should be received evenly.read · scan
- p. 265Death is a natural operation like growing old or childbirth; await it with neither carelessness nor contempt.read · scan
- p. 265Reconcile oneself to death by considering the discordant men one leaves; only like-minded company could attach us to life.read · scan
- p. 268Cessation of activity is no evil; every stage of life was a kind of death, so ending life is nothing to fear.read · scan
- p. 272Calls life wretched and trivial; whether a hundred years or three, and whether providence or atoms with dispersion, no reason for disturbance.read · scan
- p. 280Whether living, departing or dying having done one's duty, there is nothing else; be of good cheer.read · scan
- p. 281Ask whether death is dreadful because it deprives you of what you are doing.read · scan
- p. 284Even the good man dying finds some relieved at his going; so depart contentedly rather than cling to a longer stay.read · scan
- p. 298Life ending at its proper time is no evil, as the natural change keeps the universe young.read · scan
- p. 298Termination of life is no evil, being seasonable, independent of will and congruent with the universe.read · scan
- p. 300–301Do not be troubled by losing life's goods in death; follow reason and god.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 137His sayings show indifference to death: he that has no grave is covered by the sky; heaven is equally near from everywhere.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to DieVol. 32
- p. 23–24Death is part of ourselves; we die as we live, from birth onward, and life in itself is neither good nor evil.read · scan
- p. 26Death comes to all creatures at every moment; a short life is a whole life, and death gives life its bitter-sweet moderation.read · scan
Sir Edward Dyer, My Mind to Me a Kingdom IsVol. 40
- p. 207–209He neither loathes life nor dreads his end.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 204–205Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is it to leave early?read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 332Pagans like Socrates and Seneca wrongly take death as natural; death is penalty of sin, and Christian life a sacrifice completed by death.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 415Reason and decay teach us to resign joys and welcome death calmly.read · scan
Walter Savage Landor, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 903–905Landor's epigrams face death calmly, ready to depart at ninth decade; Death's language holds no fear.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 337Departing from among men is not to be feared.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1008–1009'We die—does it matter when?' accepting death, committing himself to the hands of Godread · scan
3c.Death as the ending of misery and the welcome release
See also: Emotion 7a · Memory and Imagination 4a
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 250Penelope wishes for a soft death from Artemis to end her sorrowful waste of life.read · scan
- p. 274–275She prays for death rather than to wed a baser man; sleep as forgetfulness.read · scan
Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8
- p. 28–29The dead are freed from care, while the living should be thankful rather than moan over fate.read · scan
- p. 65–67The Chorus wishes for endless sleep, life being weary now the king is slain.read · scan
Aeschylus, Prometheus BoundVol. 8
- p. 192–193Io wishes to die to end her pain; immortal Prometheus has no such respite.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 73–74Job curses the day of his birth and longs for the rest of death, where wicked and weary cease.read · scan
- p. 75Job asks why life is given to the bitter who long for death and dig for it like treasure.read · scan
- p. 79–80Job begs God to crush him and cut him off, seeing no strength to wait.read · scan
- p. 86–87Job wishes he had gone from womb to grave; his few days end in the land of darkness and death.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 267Antigone counts death a gain for one who lives amid woes.read · scan
- p. 292–293Messenger says life without joy is a breathing corpse; fortune's chance rules mortal life; announces deaths of Haemon and others.read · scan
- p. 297–298Creon longs for death as the last of sorrows, never to look on the light again.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 340–342Theseus longs to dwell beneath the earth with death after Phaedra's loss.read · scan
- p. 346–349Theseus says swift death is bliss to men in misery, so exile's lingering pain is worse; Hippolytus invokes death and Phaedra's suicide.read · scan
- p. 360–362Hippolytus begs for Death as healer; good men's deaths bring no joy in heaven.read · scan
- p. 362–365Hippolytus nears death, wishing for the grave's sleep.read · scan
Ecclesiastes; or, The PreacherVol. 44
- p. 338–339All die alike; the dead are praised above the living, and the unborn above both.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 90He wishes he had been seen as a corpse, and says only Quintus's dependence on his life kept him from death.read · scan
- p. 90He says he will live only as long as his brother needs him; death would have been more honourable earlier.read · scan
- p. 165Death spared Tullia from the miseries of the times; a painless death is far from the worst fate.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 8Shahriyar says death would be preferable to life if no one else suffered such a calamity.read · scan
- p. 234–235Quoting Solomon, he says the day of death is better than the day of birth and the grave than the palace.read · scan
Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49
- p. 397–400She wishes to cast her life aside or be burned like birch-woodread · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 337–338Gudrun in the wolf-haunted wood judges death gentler than life.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 283–284Earthly life as a vale of miseries and imprisonment, from which the soul longs to flee to God.read · scan
- p. 313–314Days of this life are few, evil and full of sorrows; the exile longs for the eternal day, with spirit and flesh at war.read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35
- p. 206–208The sick king longs to pass out of this world; Joseph appears though dead three hundred years.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 125More receives news of his execution gladly, thanking the King for ridding him of the miseries of this wretched world.read · scan
Samuel Daniel, Beauty, Time, and Love: Sonnets; To SleepVol. 40
- p. 222Sleep addressed as brother to Death, a refuge from care.read · scan
William Shakespeare, Songs and SonnetsVol. 40
- p. 268–270Death welcomed by a rejected lover; all, kings and lads, come to dust; a drowned father's sea-change.read · scan
- p. 275–276Poet weary of the world's wrongs longs for death but stays for his love; asks not to be mourned.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 68–72Edward welcomes death, believing it ends all: to wretched men death is felicity.read · scan
- p. 87–89Isabella cries 'come, sweet death' to end her grief.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 315Lear dies over Cordelia; Kent says let him pass, for he hates who would stretch him on the rack of this tough world.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46
- p. 354–356Duncan sleeps well after life's fitful fever; Macbeth thinks it better to be dead than in restless torture.read · scan
Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47
- p. 704–708Bellario calls death less than birth, a lasting sleep and quiet rest from jealousy, a game that must be lost.read · scan
- p. 713–715Bellario goes to seek a forgotten place to die; Arethusa wishes to die pursued by hounds.read · scan
- p. 721Arethusa hopes for peace in death and asks whether the other world has jealousy or ill.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 814Worst hell is to live and be unable to die.read · scan
- p. 814–817She longs for swift death; the world is a tedious theatre.read · scan
- p. 820–821Bosola arrives as tomb-maker, telling her her sickness is unfelt; madmen sing of welcoming death.read · scan
- p. 849–850The dying Antonio finds life's pleasure a mere ague-fit's good hours and welcomes death with no use for his life.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 333Sick family and desperate poverty lead Donne to hope he is dying and to feel he is nothing.read · scan
- p. 361–362Report of his death brought good testimony from friends; he would almost be content to die.read · scan
Waly, Waly; Helen of Kirconnell; My Love in Her Attire; Love Not MeVol. 40
- p. 323–324Speaker calls on gentle Death and wishes to lie where the dead Helen lies.read · scan
- p. 324–325He longs for the grave and is weary of the skies since Helen died.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 296Death is the first day of our Jubilee; we are in no calamity's power while death is ours.read · scan
- p. 323Death is the cure of all diseases, a potion of immortality.read · scan
Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26
- p. 87Severus craves the grave as the one boon; one who welcomes death can endure life's pain.read · scan
- p. 111Polyeucte sees kind death as removal from a fearful world into victory.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 304Adam longs for death as release, yet is tormented by the prospect of deathless pain.read · scan
- p. 319Death made a final remedy after tribulation, leading to renewal of the just.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 359The swain describes hardship and misery of wilderness life.read · scan
John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4
- p. 415Samson calls his blind captive life a living death, himself his own sepulchre, half dead.read · scan
- p. 415Samson feels his spirits droop and invokes death as welcome end of pains.read · scan
- p. 415Samson prays for speedy death as balm to end miseries.read · scan
- p. 415Samson welcomes death from his foe as release from bondage.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 336Dread of death was just in innocence; now death frees the soul from an impure body and should be loved.read · scan
- p. 351–352The bond of the body is broken only by death, which we wish for while enduring life for Christ's love.read · scan
- p. 358–359Death is necessary and desirable to mortify the root of sin; the dead are more living in God's sight.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 71–76Cleopatra longs for the long repose of the tomb as relief from grief.read · scan
Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26
- p. 133–134Phaedra is described as dying, weary of life and longing for death.read · scan
- p. 165–166Death holds no alarm for the miserable; she prefers it to living in shame.read · scan
- p. 181–182She longs for death as release and asks only the grave's aid.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 49–50Franklin's near-fatal pleurisy leaves him regretting recovery; Denham's illness carries him off.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 277The miseries of mortal life make the fear of death easier to bear.read · scan
Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 453–454Death is a sad refuge from the storms of fate.read · scan
William Cowper, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 543Earthly life is so little to be loved that he would not recall her to it.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 64–66Faust hates life and fondly desires death, though Mephistopheles notes death is never a welcome guest.read · scan
- p. 197–200She longs for the grave as everlasting resting-place and arranges the graves of her family.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 60–63Death called the poor man's dearest friend, a blest relief to the weary-laden.read · scan
- p. 143–145Life is a gift not worth receiving when burdened with grief; drink oils the wheels of life and brightens despair.read · scan
- p. 194–196Death is addressed as inexorable lord, toppling empires; the mourner courts it to end his cares and lays down life's joyless day.read · scan
- p. 196–198Life is a weary road with woes ending only at the tomb.read · scan
- p. 396–398She longs for the narrow house of death and a peaceful grave.read · scan
- p. 509–511The grieving heart expects its bruised breast will soon be at rest, i.e. death.read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26
- p. 457–458Attinghausen feels life ebbing and says life is but pain, which has now left him.read · scan
Charles Lamb, On the Tragedies of ShakspereVol. 27
- p. 310–311After Lear's suffering, death is the only decorous dismissal from life.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 341Overcome by alarm, she earnestly longs for death.read · scan
- p. 598–599Lucia laments the misery and dying around them and wishes God had taken her.read · scan
Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18
- p. 411The spirits say they are immortal and cannot give oblivion, but he may die; he finds days too long.read · scan
- p. 423He prays for madness and death, is denied, and is doomed to live forever.read · scan
- p. 423–428Life is a detested yoke; the soul pants for death yet shrinks from it; he will ask the dead what we dread.read · scan
George Gordon, Lord Byron, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 803–804The narrator would smile to see death that might set him free.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 294–295Beatrice thinks it wiser to die than struggle against worse to come.read · scan
- p. 351Beatrice's lullaby wishes death were like sleep and bids the world farewell to the passing bell.read · scan
- p. 353Beatrice welcomes death like a mother's embrace, the sleep from which none wake.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 829–832The bird must know death more truly and deeply than mortals, or its notes could not flow so clear.read · scan
- p. 864–866Death is an awakening from the dream of life; the living decay in fear and grief while the dead sleeps not.read · scan
- p. 866–867Death is a low mist that cannot blot the brightness it veils; the dead escape the world's slow stain.read · scan
John Keats, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 875–877The world of men is weariness, groaning, palsy and youth dying; the poet longs to fade away with the nightingale.read · scan
- p. 877–878Half in love with easeful Death, it seems rich to die painlessly while the bird sings.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, HeroismVol. 5
- p. 122Sophocles says to die is to begin to live, leaving deceitful knaves for gods and goodness.read · scan
- p. 131We envy the good who are dead and safe from tumult; love makes death impossible.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 89He asked whether he could bear to go on living and thought he could not endure beyond a year.read · scan
Helen Selina, Lady Dufferin, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 919–920Her death and burial; he is thankful she has gone where grief cannot reach.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1336Evangeline walks among the dying in the almshouse; Death is called the consoler who heals hearts forever.read · scan
Edgar Allan Poe, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1237–1239Life is a fever; death's grave quenches all thirst and brings rest; the sleeper seems dead.read · scan
Walt Whitman, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1409–1410Dying soldiers struggle for breath; the poet welcomes sweet death as a mercy.read · scan
- p. 1417–1418Death welcomed as soothing deliverer and dark mother, praised alongside life, joy and love.read · scan
Alexander Smith, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1147There is no rest on earth; peace is with Death and the beloved.read · scan
William Morris, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1193–1195Weak speaker seeks within the jaws of death an entrance to the happy place of the lost beloved.read · scan
3d.Death as horror, corruption and the king of terrors
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 156–157Achilles rejects consolation: he would rather be a hireling among the living than rule all the dead.read · scan
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 98The wicked are brought to the king of terrors and chased out of the world.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 821–823Bosola reduces the body to worm-seed and mortality, the tomb-maker's trade.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 291–292Browne is ashamed rather than afraid of death because it disfigures us and makes friends and beasts recoil.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 139–140Hopeful learns that the end of worldly pleasures is death.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 90–93Alexas fears losing being, like a melting snowball; soul and body dread final separation.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 34–35Ideas of sickness and death fill the mind with horror more than health and life please.read · scan
- p. 35Death, the king of terrors, is preferred to hardly any pain.read · scan
- p. 50Burke says terror needs obscurity; unknown dangers such as ghosts and darkness heighten dread, a preface to his Milton description of Death.read · scan
- p. 55Ideas of pain and death are so affecting that we cannot be free of terror before what can inflict them.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 321The Unnamed is haunted by the thought of aging and death, which fills him with undefined horror in the night's stillness.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 301–305Beatrice feels dead, her limbs putrefying and sepulchring her soul.read · scan
- p. 353Beatrice recoils from sudden death: the cold ground, no more sunshine, fear of being nothing.read · scan
Algernon Charles Swinburne, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1206–1208Barren garden, life seems barren as death.read · scan
3e.Death as a greater good, or as a mere nothing
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 13If sensation ends with death there is nothing bad in it; a man is as if never born.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 181No Hades; wished to be found at death doing noble deeds or raising up oneself.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 231Wait in tranquillity for one's end, extinction or removal to another state.read · scan
- p. 263–264Fear of death is unfounded: either no sensation and so no harm, or a different sensation and continued life.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, That to Philosophise Is to Learne How to DieVol. 32
- p. 25–26Death is nothing to the living or the dead; life's worth lies in use, not length, and all follow the same path.read · scan
Thomas Jordan, Let Us Drink and Be MerryVol. 40
- p. 364–365Since we shall be nothing in a hundred years, and no pleasure after death, enjoy life now.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 331–332Egmont rests before the gates of death, likening death to sleep that lulls and ends care and fear.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 835–836Mariner drifting to the haven of the grave; the dead feel neither pain nor love; an unmourned skull on a shore.read · scan
- p. 854–855The cloud laughs at its own cenotaph; another poem says all that moves must rest and the beloved will lie in the grave.read · scan
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 942Sleep as death: the speaker asks friends at her bier not to weep because God gives his beloved sleep.read · scan
Algernon Charles Swinburne, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1202–1204Death gathers all mortal things; beauty, strength and love end in sleep; neither heaven nor hell awaits.read · scan
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