Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, City of God 1.11.1-2 (tr. Henry Bettenson):

I am certain of this, that no one has died who was not going to die at some time, and the end of life reduces the longest life to the same condition as the shortest. When something has once ceased to exist, there is no more question of better or worse, longer or shorter. What does it matter by what kind of death life is brought to an end? When man's life is ended he does not have to die again. Among the daily chances of this life every man on earth is threatened in the same way by innumerable deaths, and it is uncertain which of them will come to him. And so the question is whether it is better to suffer one in dying or to fear them all in living.

hoc scio, neminem fuisse mortuum qui non fuerat aliquando moriturus. finis autem vitae tam longam quam brevem vitam hoc idem facit. neque enim aliud melius et aliud deterius, aut aliud maius et aliud brevius est, quod iam pariter non est. quid autem interest, quo mortis genere vita ista finiatur, quando ille cui finitur iterum mori non cogitur? cum autem unicuique mortalium sub cotidianis vitae huius casibus innumerabiles mortes quodam modo comminentur, quamdiu incertum est quaenam earum ventura sit: quaero utrum satius sit unam perpeti moriendo an omnes timere vivendo.

Tibullus 1.3.50 (tr. J.P. Postgate):

There are a thousand ways of sudden death.

leti mille repente viae.

Propertius 2.28.58 (tr. H.E. Butler):

Sooner or later death awaiteth all.

longius aut propius mors sua quemque manet.