Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶60–65 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶60–65

M. Thus: because, if there is no evil after death, then even death itself can be none. For that which immediately succeeds that is a state where you grant that there is no evil: so that even to be obliged to die can be no evil, for that is only the being obliged to arrive at a place where we allow that no evil is. A. I beg you will be more explicit on this point, for these subtle arguments force me sooner to admissions than to conviction. But what are those more important things about which you say that you are occupied? M. To teach you, if I can, that death is not only no evil, but a good. A. I do not insist on that, but should be glad to hear you argue it, for even though you should not prove your point, yet you will prove that death is no evil. But I will not interrupt you; I would rather hear a continued discourse. M. What, if I should ask you a question, would you not answer? A. That would look like pride. But I would rather you should not ask but where necessity requires.