Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, On Old Age 19.67 (tr. William Armistead Falconer):

And yet is there anyone so foolish, even though he is young, as to feel absolutely sure that he will be alive when evening comes?

quamquam quis est tam stultus, quamvis sit adulescens, cui sit exploratum se ad vesperum esse victurum?

J.G.F. Powell ad loc.:

cui sit exploratum ... victurum Cf. Fin. 2.92 an id exploratum cuiquam potest esse, quomodo se hoc habiturum sit corpus, non dico ad annum, sed ad vesperum?, §74 and note; Simonides fr. 6.1 Diehl (16 Page); Eur. Alc. 783-4; Philodemus, De morte 37.23ff. (Gigante, Ricerche filodemee² 181, 193); Pap. Herc. 1251, col. 16.1 (W. Schmid, Studia Herculanensia fasc. 1, Leipzig 1939).

Philodemus, On Death 37.18-27 (tr. W. Benjamin Henry):

Now to be caught unawares when death comes, as something unexpected and incredible is happening, is foolish, but it occurs in the case of most people, as they do not know that every man, even if he should be stronger than the Giants, is transient in relation to life and death, and (that) it is uncertain not only what will happen tomorrow, but also what will happen in the immediate future...

                                          τὸ τοίνυν συν-
α[ρ]πάζεσθα[ι] θανάτου προσπίπτον-
τ[ο]ς, ὡς ἀπροσ[δ]οκήτου τινὸς καὶ παρα-
δόξου συνα[ν]τῶντο[ς], ἠλί[θιο]ν [μέ]ν
ἐ[σ]τ̣ι̣, γίνετα[ι δ]ὲ περὶ τοὺς πλείστ[ου]ς,
ἀγνοοῦντας ὅτι πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, κ[ἂ]ν
ἰσχυρότερος ἧ<ι> τῶν Γιγάντων, ἐφ[ήμ]ε-
ρός [ἐσ]τι πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ [τε]λευτὴν, καὶ
ἄδ[η]λόν ἐ[σ]τ̣ι̣ν οὐ τὸ αὔ[ρι]ον μόν[ο]ν,
ἀλλὰ καὶ [τ]ὸ [αὐ]τίκα δή...