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The one who is still in life, is not yet blessed because of the uncertainty of the outcome; but he who has fulfilled his duties, and has concluded his life with an undeniable end, this one is now securely blessed.

(15Ε_290> No one does business after the festival is dismissed, nor is crowned after the games have passed; nor acts bravely after the wars.

Of the Theologian. For every dying mortal, the whole earth is a tomb. For all that is from earth is earth and to earth again. Chrysostom. If when moving from city to city, we need a guide;

much more the soul, departing from the flesh, and moving on to the future life, will need those who will lead.

Just as a body in its death throes and near its end, suffers countless afflictions; and from a house about to collapse, many things are accustomed to fall beforehand, both from the roof and from the walls; so also the end of the inhabited world is near and at the doors, and for this reason countless evils have been scattered everywhere.

Aristot. It is best to depart from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty, nor drunk.

He who writes a will during an illness, suffers something similar, to those who begin to prepare the ship's tackle in a winter storm

Socrat. Choose to die well rather, than to live shamefully. 904 Of Cletarchus. It is better to die, than to obscure the soul through lack of self-control. Of Moschion. When diseases overtake one another, not even

death itself postpones being present. From Favorinus. Aristides the Just, being asked, For how long is it

good for a man to live, he said, Until he supposes that to die is better than to live. Amasis. Amasis the king of the Egyptians, to a friend who had lost (15Ε_292>

a son, writing a consolation, said, If when he did not yet exist you were not sad, do not be sad now that he is no more.

Diogenes. Diogenes the Cynic, to someone lamenting because he was about to die in a foreign land, said, Why do you lament, O foolish one, for from every place the road to Hades is the same.

It were proper for us, when we gather, to mourn the one who is born for all the evils he enters; but the one who has died and ceased from labors, to send from our homes with rejoicing and praise.

Epicur. Against other things it is possible to obtain security; but on account of death all we men inhabit a city without walls.

Of Musonius. It is not possible to live the present day well, without setting out to live it as one's last.

Of Polyaenus. Do not grieve for those who die; for it is necessary; but for those who die shamefully.

Democrit. This man, having fallen ill and into a lethargy, when he recovered his senses, The love of life, he said, will in no way deceive me; and he took himself out of life.

Of Menander. Thrice wretched indeed and miserable by nature. And to live is full of many cares. It is more necessary to heal the soul than the body. For than to live badly, to die

is better. Sophocl. For no man is a faithful friend to a tomb. Alas for the dead one, how quickly for mortals

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Ὁ μέν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τυγχάνων, οὔπω μακαριστός διά τό ἄδηλον τῆς ἐκβάσεως· ὁ δέ συμπληρώσας τά ἐπιβάλλοντα, καί ἀναντιῤῥήτῳ τέλει τήν ζωήν κατακλείσας, οὗτος ἤδη ἀσφαλῶς μακαρίζεται

(15Ε_290> Οὐδείς μετά τό λυθῆναι τήν πανήγυριν πραγματεύεται, οὐδέ μετά τούς ἀγῶνας παρελθών στεφανοῦνται· οὐδέ μετά τούς πολέμους ἀνδραγαθεῖ.

Θεολόγου. Παντί βροτῷ θνήσκοντι πᾶσα γῆ τάφος. Πᾶν γάρ τό ἐκ γῆς γῆ τε καί εἰς γῆν πάλιν. Χρυσόστ. Εἰ πόλιν ἐκ πόλεως ἀμειβοῦντες, τοῦ χειραγωγοῦντος δεόμεθα·

πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ ψυχή, τῆς σαρκός ἀπάρασα, καί πρός τήν μέλλουσαν μεθισταμένη ζωήν, τῶν ὁδηγησόντων δεήσεται.

Καθάπερ σῶμα ψυχοῤῥαγοῦν καί ἐγγύς ὤν τελευτῆς, μυρίας ἀπιστᾶται κακώσεις· καί οἰκίας μελλούσης καταπίπτειν, πολλά προπίπτειν εἴωθεν, καί ἀπό τῆς ὀροφῆς, καί ἀπό τῶν τοίχων· οὕτω καί τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐγγύς καί ἐν θύραις ἐστίν ἡ συντέλεια, καί διά τοῦτο τά μυρία διέσπαρται πανταχοῦ κακά.

Ἀριστοτ. Ἐκ τοῦ βίου κράτιστόν ἐστιν ὑπεξελθεῖν ὡς ἐκ συμποσίου, μήτε διψῶντα, μήτε μεθύοντα.

Ὁ ἐν νόσῳ διαθήκας γράφων, παραπλήσια πάσχει, τοῖς χειμῶνι θαλαττίῳ εὐτρεπίζειν ἀρχομένοις τά τῆς νηός ὅπλα

Σωκράτ. Αἱροῦ καλῶς τεθνάναι μᾶλλον, ἤ ζῆν αἰσχρῶς. 904 Κλητάρχου. Κρεῖττον ἀποθανεῖν, ἤ δι᾿ ἀκρασίας ψυχήν ἀμαυρῶσαι. Μοσχίωνος. Ταῖς νόσοις ὁ θάνατος ἀλλήλαις ἐπικαταλαμβανούσαις, οὐδ᾿

αὐτός παρεῖναι ἀναβάλλεται. Ἐκ τῶν Φαβωρίν. Ἀριστείδης ὁ δίκαιος ἐρωτηθείς, Πόσον ἐστί χρόνον

ἄνθρωπον καλόν ζῇν, ἔφη, Ἔως ἄν ὑπολάβῃ τό τεθνάναι τοῦ ζῇν κρεῖττον εἶναι. Ἄμασις. Ἄμασις ὁ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων βασιλεύς, φίλῳ ἀποβαλόντι (15Ε_292>

υἱόν, γράφων παραμυθητικόν, εἶπεν, Εἰ ὅτε οὐδέπω ἦν οὐκ ἐλύπου, μηδέ νῦν ὅτι οὐκ ἔτι ἔστι λυπηθῇς.

∆ιογένης. ∆ιογένης ὁ Κυνικός ὀδυρομένου τινός ἐπειδή ἐπί ξένης ἤμελλε τελευτᾷν, εἶπε , Τί ὀδύρῃ, ὦ μάταιε, πανταχόθεν γάρ ὁδός ἡ αὐτή εἰς ᾅδου.

Ἐχρῆν μέν ἡμᾶς σύλλογον ποιουμένους, τόν φῦντα θρηνεῖν εἰς ὅσ᾿ ἔρχεται κακά· τόν δ᾿ αὖ θανόντα καί πόνων πεπαυμένον, χαίροντας, εὐφημοῦντας, ἐκπέμπειν δόμων.

Ἐπικούρ. Πρός μέν τ᾿ ἄλλα δυνατόν ἀσφάλειαν πορίσασθαι· χάριν δέ θανάτου πάντες ἄνθρωποι πόλιν ἀτείχιστον οἰκοῦμεν.

Μουσωνίου. Οὐκ ἔστι τήν ἐνεστηκυῖαν ἡμέραν καλῶς βιῶναι, μή προθέμενον αὐτήν ὡς ἐσχάτην βιῶσαι.

Πολυαίνου. Ἐπί τοῖς ἀποθνήσκουσι μή λυποῦ· ἀναγκαῖον γάρ· ἀλλ᾿ ἐπί τοῖς αἰσχρῶς τελευτῶσιν.

∆ημοκρίτ. Οὗτος νοσήσας καί ληθαργῷ περιπεσών, ὡς ἀνένηψεν, Οὐδέν με, ἔφη, ἐξαπατήσει ἡ φιλοζωΐα· καί ἐξήγαγεν ἑαυτόν τοῦ βίου.

Μενάνδρου. Τρισάθλιόν γε καί ταλαίπωρον φύσει. Πολλῶν τε μεστόν ἐστι τό ζῇν φροντίδων. Ψυχήν σώματος ἀναγκαιότερον ἰᾶσθαι. Τοῦ γάρ κακῶς ζῇν, τό τεθνάναι

κρεῖσσον. Σοφοκλ. Τύμβῳ γάρ οὐδείς πιστός ἀνθρώπων φίλος. Φεῦ τοῦ θανόντος, ὡς ταχεῖα τοῖς βροτοῖς