You might just as well say that the fall of leaves is ill-omened, or for a fresh fig to change into a dried one, and a bunch of grapes into raisins. For all these changes are from a preceding state into a new and different state; and thus not destruction, but an ordered management and governance of things. Traveling abroad is likewise, a small change; and so is death, a greater change, from what presently is-and here I should not say: a change into what is not, but rather: into what presently is not. – In which case, then, shall I cease to be? – Yes, you will cease to be what you are, but become something else of which the universe then has need.
Epictetus, Discourses, III, 24, 91-4 (cited be Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought (2011) at 37.
This is great! An associate shared this with me this morning on Google Plus. Impressive.