Socrates on the Fear of Death

To fear death is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not; for it is to think one knows what one does not know. No man knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessing for a human being; and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that is is the greatest of evil.

from:"The Apology (The Defense of Socrates)" In Great Dialogues of Plato, trans. W.H.D. Rouse, Bergenfield, NJ: Mentor Books, 1971, p 435.