Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶79 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
From “On the Contempt of Death”
Translation by C. D. Yonge (1853)
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶79
Note: Spoken by Cicero’s listener (“A.”), not by Cicero — the reply follows in the next passage.
A. Explain, therefore, if it is not troublesome to you, first, if you can, that souls do exist after death; secondly, should you fail in that (and it is a very difficult thing to establish), that death is free from all evil. For I am not without my fears that this itself is an evil: I do not mean the immediate deprivation of sense, but the fact that we shall hereafter suffer deprivation.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶79, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/tusculan-disputations/1.79
Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, tr. C. D. Yonge (1853). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe friend admits a lingering worry that death might be bad because of what we will lose, not because we will suffer. He asks to be shown either that the soul survives or that losing everything is not harmful.
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Fear and anxiety
- Fear of death
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.