Topic Death
Topic Death: Montaigne once said if you don't know how to die don't worry. Nature will tell you what to do on the spot fully and adequately. People that get sick with a mortally ill disease have a tendency to philosophize about death. I don't think that people who are living think enough about death. Let me ask you a question. If every person knew that they were going to die at age of 70 or 80, would they live life differently? Would you? How would you live differently? Now why would you live differently if you are going to live to a specific time such as 70, when, by not knowing the time of your death you may even have less time than that to live? I think the reason is because people are just afraid of the unknown. If you start viewing death as a known and as inevitable as it is it might give you the impetus to do things that you haven't done.
— from The Landing (Death)
In the book
He insisted that if you do not know how to die you need not worry, because nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately, and will do the job perfectly without your fussing. In time "don't worry about death" became his most liberating answer to the whole question of how to live — the answer that finally made it possible to do just that: live. His acceptance was never half-hearted; it was a full and generous yes to death, and through it, to life. — The Landing (Death)