I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so

“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.” Thus spoke Stephen Hawking, the sage of the stars, whose mind soared through the vastness of creation even as his body lay bound by frailty. These words, simple yet profound, shimmer with the wisdom of a man who lived his entire life within the shadow of mortality — and yet refused to let that shadow darken his light. In them is neither fear nor denial, but the sacred balance of courage and purpose: the acceptance of death as natural, and the embrace of life as sacred.

Hawking was only twenty-one when he was told that his body would fail him within a few short years. The disease that sought to silence him, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tightened its grip upon his limbs — yet his spirit expanded beyond measure. Faced with a future that promised suffering and decline, he did not despair. Instead, he chose to live fully, to fill each moment with meaning. His words — “I’m not afraid of death” — were not spoken in arrogance, but in peace. He understood, as the ancient philosophers did, that death is not the enemy; it is simply the horizon. What matters is not when one reaches it, but how one sails toward it.

The ancients, too, knew this truth. Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher, once wrote: “It is not death that a man should fear, but never beginning to live.” In this, he speaks the same language as Hawking — that the true tragedy is not