Fourth to third century BCE
If death is absent while we exist and we are absent when death arrives, what reason remains to fear it in advance?
Epicurus argues that good and bad depend on sensation and death is the deprivation of sensation, so death is nothing to us.
This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.
Epicurus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §4.1 Fear of Death; Letter to Menoeceus 124–127
Open sourceWhether the argument addresses the pain of dying, survivors’ loss, and future possibilities deprived by death remains open to separate objections.
This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.
Epicurus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: §4.1–§4.2, death, pleasure, and later objections
Open source