Epicurus Ἐπίκουρος

early 3rd century BC

Let no one put off philosophy while young, nor grow weary of it when old. For no one is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Μήτε νέος τις ὢν μελλέτω φιλοσοφεῖν, μήτε γέρων ὑπάρχων κοπιάτω φιλοσοφῶν· οὔτε γὰρ ἄωρος οὐδείς ἐστιν οὔτε πάρωρος πρὸς τὸ κατὰ ψυχὴν ὑγιαῖνον.

Letter to Menoeceus, in Lives of the Philosophers 10.122

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270 BC

I write this to you on a happy day that is also the last of my life. The strangury and the dysentery have kept with me, and nothing could be added to their severity. But set against all of them is the joy in my soul at the memory of the conversations we have had.

Τὴν μακαρίαν ἄγοντες καὶ ἅμα τελευταίαν ἡμέραν τοῦ βίου ἐγράφομεν ὑμῖν ταυτί. στραγγουρία τε παρηκολουθήκει καὶ δυσεντερικὰ πάθη ὑπερβολὴν οὐκ ἀπολείποντα τοῦ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς μεγέθους. ἀντιπαρετάττετο δὲ πᾶσι τούτοις τὸ κατὰ ψυχὴν χαῖρον ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν γεγονότων ἡμῖν διαλογισμῶν μνήμῃ.

The last letter, to Idomeneus, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers 10.22

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