Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 12 (1.12) / sec. 27 (1.27) (45 BC) [ed. Harbottle (1897)]

Dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 21:52:18 +0000

MARCUS: Death is no annihilation, carrying off and blotting out everything, but rather, if I may so describe it, a change of abode, and an alteration in our manner of life.

[Mortem non interitum esse omnia tollentem atque delentem, sed quandam quasi migrationem commutationemque vitae.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 12 (1.12) / sec. 27 (1.27) (45 BC) [ed. Harbottle (1897)]

On the belief, from antiquity, in the soul and survival of it beyond death.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Death was not an Annihilation, but a removal and change only of Life.
[tr. Wase (1643)]

Death was not so entire a destruction as to leave nothing remining, but a certain transmigration, as it were, and change of life.
[tr. Main (1824)]

Death was not a destruction, involving a total and absolute demolition, but rather a certain migration and change of life.
[tr. Otis (1839)]

Death was not so entire a destruction as wholly to abolish and destroy everything, but rather a kind of transmigration, as it were, and change of life.
[tr. Yonge (1853)]

Death is not a catastrophe that takes away and blots out everything, but is, so to speak, a migration and a change of life.
[tr. Peabody (1886)]

Death was not a destruction which removed and obliterated everything, but only a migration, as it were, and an exchange of one life for another.
[tr. Black (1889)]

WIST Quotations

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Tusculan Disputations [Tusculanae Disputationes], Book 1, ch. 12 (1.12) / sec. 27 (1.27) (45 BC) [ed. Harbottle (1897)]