Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
Letter 61: On meeting death cheerfully
Letter 61 is written as if death might call in the very act of writing: before growing old Seneca tried to live well, now he tries to die well.
What would be a necessity for one who resists is none for one who consents, and having lived enough depends on the mind, not on the years.
From the letter
I am ready to depart, and I shall enjoy life just because I am not over-anxious as to the future date of my departure.
Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly.
That which is bound to be a necessity if you rebel, is not a necessity if you desire it.
The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will.
To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds.
Coverage
Our editions hold 30 letters of 124 in Richard Mott Gummere’s translation (1917–1925); 29 of them have a page here, those that Joseph Baillard’s French translation (1861) also contains.
Seneca and Epictetus are in Stoic+ — 1 passage of this letter, with its reference; Marcus Aurelius is free in the app.