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From one of the great materialist philosophers of ancient Rome:
No one is given life to own; we all hold but a lease. Look back again — how the endless ages of time come to pass Before our birth are nothing to us. This is a looking glass Nature holds up for us in which we see the time to come After we finally die. What is it there that looks so fearsome? What’s so tragic? Isn’t it more peaceful than any sleep?
(The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics) - Lucretius (tr. Alicia Stallings) - 2007)
Life is granted to no one for permanent ownership, to all on lease. Look back now and consider how the bygone ages of eternity that elapsed before our birth were nothing to us. Here, then, is a mirror in which nature shows us the time to come after our death. Do you see anything fearful in it? Do you perceive anything grim? Does it not appear more peaceful than the deepest sleep?
(On the Nature of Things (Hackett Classics) - Lucretius (tr. Martin Ferguson Smith) - 2001)
To none is life given in freehold; to all on lease. Look back at the eternity that passed before we were born, and mark how utterly it counts to us as nothing. This is a mirror that Nature holds up to us, in which we may see the time that shall be after we are dead. Is there anything terrifying in the sight — anything depressing — anything that is not more restful than the soundest sleep?
(On the Nature of the Universe (Penguin Classics) - Lucretius (tr. R. E. Latham) - 1951)
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