Things Worse Than Dying

Death and dying are the worst parts of life, right? After all, they do end the whole thing. So while it does make sense, generally, to try to avoid dying, Seneca marvelled at the terrible things people do to stay alive--things much worse than death. We’ll betray friends, he said, betray our most closely held beliefs, people will even sell out their own children and grandchildren--as the elderly often do in almost every election--just to keep things the way we like them. How pathetic is this? And what a contradiction it is. Sure, you’re literally still alive, but you traded your soul to make it so. You might as well be in a coma on a ventilator. Actually, according to Seneca, that would be better. Because the problem with the pathetic, unprincipled, selfish things we do to stay alive--stealing, hoarding, lying, and cheating--is that we then have to live with them. People do terrible things to live to see the sunrise the next day, he says, “a dawn that’s privy to their many sins.” There are many worse things than death, many things that no amount of years are worth trading for. That is: Living with what we had to do to keep living, well, that can be worth than death. We must always remember that. Life is not the scarce resource, living well is. Being a good person is. Doing the right thing is. That’s what important. Not how many years you pile up. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Things Worse Than Dying. Death and dying are the worst parts of life, right? After all, they do end the whole thing. So while it does make sense generally to try to avoid death, Seneca marveled at all the terrible things people do to stay alive. Things much worse than death will betray friends, he said, betray our most closely held beliefs. People will even sell out their own children and grandchildren, as the elderly often do in almost every election, just to keep things the way they like them. How pathetic is this? And what a contradiction it is. Sure, you're literally still alive, but you

• 1:08Ryan Holiday?

  traded your soul to make it so. You might as well be in a coma on a ventilator. Actually, according to Seneca, that would be better, because the problem with the pathetic, unprincipled, selfish things we do to stay alive—stealing, hoarding, lying, cheating—is that we then have to live with them. People do these terrible things to live to see the sunrise the next day, he said, a dawn that's privy to their many sins. There are so many things worse than death, many things that no amount of years are worth trading for. That is, living with what we had to do to keep living well, that can be worse than death. We must always

• 1:50Ryan Holiday?

  remember that. Life is not the scarce resource. Living well is. Being a good person is. Doing the right thing is. That's what's important, not how many years you pile up.

• 2:04Ryan Holiday?

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