“Best gift of all
The knowledge how to die; next, death compelled.”
Book IX, line 211 (tr. E. Ridley).
Pharsalia
Original
Scire mori sors prima viris, sed proxima cogi.
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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus 58
Roman poet 39–65Related quotes

“How many different deaths I can die?”
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

[Five Tracts of Hasan Al-Banna: A Selection from the Majmu at Rasail al-Imam al-Shahid Hasan al-Banna, University of California Press, 156] translated and annotated by Charles Wendell.

“There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.”
On the Death of Mr. Addison (1721), line 81. Compare: "He who should teach men to die, would at the same time teach them to live", Michel de Montaigne, Essay, book i. chap. ix.; "I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die", Sandys, Anglorum Speculum, p. 903; "Teach him how to live, And, oh still harder lesson! how to die", Beilby Porteus, Death, line 316; "He taught them how to live and how to die", Somerville, In Memory of the Rev. Mr. Moore.
Context: There patient show'd us the wise course to steer,
A candid censor, and a friend severe;
There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 116

“Death would not be called bad, O people, if one knew how to truly die.”
Guru Nanak quotes

Source: "Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 6: The Vocation of Eloquence
Context: Freedom has nothing to do with lack of training; it can only be the product of training. You're not free to move unless you've learned to walk, and not free to play the piano unless you practise. Nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use the language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at.