How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter)
Quote #10
He who fears death fears either unconsciousness or another sort of consciousness. Now if you will no longer be conscious you will not be conscious either of anything bad. If you are to take on a different consciousness, you will be a different being and life will not cease. (8.58)
Marcus kind of nails it here: death threatens us with total destruction. That's plenty to cause angst. But again, he strips these fears down to the bone (pardon the pun) so that we can see there is no reason to worry about unconsciousness (we'll be dead, anyway, and won't know the difference) or a change of consciousness (life continues; huzzah).