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Moral Letters Vol II

Seneca

§ Section 6

On the proper time to slip the cable

70:6

Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.

Book Description: The second volume of Seneca's moral letters to Lucilius. Each letter contains Seneca's advice and wisdom won from a life of Roman politics.

6.

It is not a question of dying earlier or later, but of dying well or ill.

And dying well means escape from the danger of living ill.

That is why I regard the words of the well-known Rhodian as most unmanly.

This person was thrown into a cage by his tyrant, and fed there like some wild animal.

And when a certain man advised him to end his life by fasting, he replied: “A man may hope for anything while he has life.”