Since Every Man Dies It Is

From the fragments of Musonius Rufus's lectures. Musonius is arguing against the common fear of early death: what matters is not the length of a life but whether it was lived with virtue and honour (kalos kagathos). A long life of dishonour leaves nothing worth having lived; a short life of virtue is complete in itself. This Stoic contempt for mere longevity — shared by Marcus Aurelius and Seneca — served as a practical antidote to the fear of death that Stoics considered one of the primary sources of human misery.