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“Shortly before death he was asked what his wishes were regarding funeral arrangements.
"Don't trouble yourself, the stench will ensure that I get buried."
"But", the other objected, "isn't it wrong that the body of a great man should be exposed as food for birds and dogs?"
"On the contrary, " he said, "it's the part of a great man, even in death, to be of service to the living.”
― Robert F. Dobbin, The Cynic Philosophers: From Diogenes to Julian

“Now, what does the title 'citizen' mean? In this role, a person never acts in his own interest or thinks of himself alone, but, like a hand or foot that had sense and realized its place in the natural order, all its actions and desires aim at nothing except contributing to the common good.”
― Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings

“Years ago, when the medical community announced that self-righteous indignation can be an addiction, as severe as any drug abuse, I expected the public to take notice. Surely (I thought) the vast majority of moderate, reasonable people will now stop listening to those vehement wrath-junkies—the essers—out there, constantly spewing hate from pulpits of the left or right, or religious or paranoiac mania? Now that the pattern is understood, won’t this tend to disempower the irate, who refuse to negotiate, and instead empower those who want to engage in reason? To listen to their neighbors and work out pragmatic solutions to problems? Those who prefer positive-sum games. Won’t this now-verified scientific fact undermine the frantic types, who have ruined argument and discourse in public life, by portraying their opponents in stark terms of pure evil, opposed by pharisaical good? By showing that their fury arises out of an addictive chemical high that they secrete within their own skulls?”
― David Brin, Existence

“Is it really so bad if no mound is built over your bones, and you are tossed out unburied? What odds does it make if you are cremated, exposed to be eaten by dogs or ravens, or consumed underground by worms?”
― Robert F. Dobbin, The Cynic Philosophers: From Diogenes to Julian