Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶72–73 — Cicero (on the Stoics)

Cicero (on the Stoics), Tusculan Disputations 1 ¶72–73

M. I take that plan to be the best, which I perceive you are inclined to, for reason will demonstrate that, whichever of the opinions which I have stated is true, it must follow, then, that death cannot be an evil, or that it must rather be something desirable. For if either the heart, or the blood, or the brain, is the soul, then certainly the soul, being corporeal, must perish with the rest of the body. If it is air, it will perhaps be dissolved; if it is fire, it will be extinguished; if it is Aristoxenus’s harmony, it will be put out of tune. What shall I say of Dicaearchus, who denies that there is any soul? In all these opinions, there is nothing to affect anyone after death; for all feeling is lost with life, and where there is no sensation, nothing can interfere to affect us. The opinions of others do indeed bring us hope, if it is any pleasure to you to think that souls, after they leave the body, may go to heaven as to a permanent home. A. I have great pleasure in that thought, and it is what I most desire. And even if it should not be so, I should still be very willing to believe it.