43.
Some get their release at the dinner-table.
Others extend their sleep into the sleep of death.
Some are blotted out during dissipation.
Now contrast with these persons individuals who have been pierced by the sword, or bitten to death by snakes, or crushed in ruins, or tortured piecemeal out of existence by the prolonged twisting of their sinews.
Some of these departures may be regarded as better, some as worse; but the act of dying is equal in all.
The methods of ending life are different; but the end is one and the same.
Death has no degrees of greater or less; for it has the same limit in all instances,—the finishing of life.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On various aspects of virtue
Location: Chapter 66, Section 43
Content:
43.
Some get their release at the dinner-table.
Others extend their sleep into the sleep of death.
Some are blotted out during dissipation.
Now contrast with these persons individuals who have been pierced by the sword, or bitten to death by snakes, or crushed in ruins, or tortured piecemeal out of existence by the prolonged twisting of their sinews.
Some of these departures may be regarded as better, some as worse; but the act of dying is equal in all.
The methods of ending life are different; but the end is one and the same.
Death has no degrees of greater or less; for it has the same limit in all instances,—the finishing of life.