Concerning Suicide
It seems absurd that a man can injure himself (volenti non fit injuria [= to the willing no injustice is done]). The Stoic therefore considered it a prerogative of his personality as a wise man to walk out of this life with an undisturbed mind whenever he liked (as out of a smoke-filled room), not because he was afflicted by actual or anticipated ills, but simply because he could make use of nothing more in this life. And yet this very courage, this strength of mind -- of not fearing death and of knowing of something which man can prize more highly than his life -- ought to have been an ever so much greater motive for him not to destroy himself, a being having such authoritative superiority over the strongest sensible incentives; consequently, it ought to have been a motive for him not to deprive himself of life.
Man cannot deprive himself of his personality so long as one speaks of duties, thus so long as he lives. That man ought to have the authorization......
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