Seneca the younger on suicide, letter 70 and 77

[imastain]

Do you see that precipice? That river? That well? Liberty sits at the bottom of them. Do you see that tree? Liberty hangs from its branches. Do you see your own throat, your own neck, your own heart? They are so many ways of escape from slavery.

Are these modes which I point out too laborious, and needing much strength and courage?

Do you ask what path leads to liberty? I answer, any vein in your body.

Can you no longer see a road to freedom? It's right in front of you. You need only turn over your wrists

Mere living is not a good, but living well. Accordingly, the wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can. He always reflects concerning the quality, and not the quantity, of his life. As soon as there are many events in his life that give him trouble and disturb his peace of mind, he sets himself free. And this privilege is his, not only when the crisis is upon him, but as soon as Fortune seems to be playing him false; then he looks about carefully and sees whether he ought, or ought not, to end his life on that account. He holds that it makes no difference to him whether his taking-off be natural or self-inflicted, whether it comes later or earlier

You can find men who have gone so far as to profess wisdom and yet maintain that one should not offer violence to one's own life, and hold it accursed for a man to be the means of his own destruction; we should wait, say they, for the end decreed by nature. But one who says this does not see that he is shutting off the path to freedom. The best thing which eternal law ever ordained was that it allowed to us one entrance into life, but many exits. This is the one reason why we cannot complain of life; it keeps no one against his will. Humanity is well situated, because no man is unhappy except by his own fault. Live, if you so desire; if not, you may return to the place whence you came.

When a man desires to burst forth and take his departure, nothing stands in his way. It is an open space in which Nature guards us. When our plight is such as to permit it, we may look about us for an easy exit. If you have many opportunities ready to hand, by means of which you may liberate yourself, you may make a selection and think over the best way of gaining freedom; but if a chance is hard to find, instead of the best, snatch the next best, even though it be something unheard of, something new. If you do not lack the courage, you will not lack the cleverness, to die.

 

[Ligottian]

Speaking of Seneca, somewhere he mentions the obscure Greek Hegesias of Cyrene. He lectured at the philosophy academy at Alexandria. His teachings were so bleak it caused many of his students to kill themselves, and he wound up being banned from teaching there.

 

[peacefulafterlife]

This is the one reason why we cannot complain of life; it keeps no one against his will.

"Don't like it? Leave!" applied to life.

 

[Eudaimonic]

Speaking of Seneca, somewhere he mentions the obscure Greek Hegesias of Cyrene. He lectured at the philosophy academy at Alexandria. His teachings were so bleak it caused many of his students to kill themselves, and he wound up being banned from teaching there.

I wish his writings had survived