“Who knows but life be that which men call death,
And death what men call life?”
Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
Phrixus, Frag. 830
“Euripides says,—
Who knows but that this life is really death,
And whether death is not what men call life?”
Pyrrho, 8.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 9: Uncategorized philosophers and Skeptics
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Do you have more details about the quote "Euripides says,—
Who knows but that this life is really death,
And whether death is not what men call life?" by Diogenes Laërtius?
Diogenes Laërtius107
biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180–240Related quotes
“It makes no sense to say that death is the goal of life, but what else is there to say?”
Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist
Drawn and Quartered (1983)
“That I shall sink in death, I know must be;
But with that death of mine what life will die?”
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer
As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, in The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Context: That I shall sink in death, I know must be;
But with that death of mine what life will die? Across the air, I hear my heart's voice cry:
Where dost thou bear me reckless one? Descend!
Such rashness seldom ends but bitterly'
"Fear not the lofty fall" I answer "rend
With might the clouds, and be content to die,
If God such a glorious death for us intend."
“Death is the veil which those who live call life;
They sleep, and it is lifted.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley Prometheus Unbound
Earth, Act III, sc. iii, l. 113
Variant: Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life.
Source: Prometheus Unbound (1818–1819; publ. 1820)
“Death, so called, is a thing which makes men weep, And yet a third of life is passed in sleep.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
