“Why do the Epicureans think they are offering any palliative. To be told one perishes completely and forever, soul, as well as body, is hardly a robust consolation.” (Cicero)

Poor Cicero!  So like a politician.  The short-term thinking!    Let me put his mind at rest:

I don’t know where exactly you are, Cicero, but I can assure you you have been re-cycled.  It could be as a flower or a favourite cat.  You could be part of the thinking bit of an astrophysicist’s brain, or it’s possible that your atoms have found their way into the blood and bones of the next species to dominate the Earth when we humans have managed to blow it up.  In any case those atoms of yours are immortal.  Think of the adventures they have had, and will have.  They came from stardust and will take a myriad of forms in millions of years to come, not necessarily on this planet. So much more interesting than the boring life of bliss, honey and harps you seem to yearn for and which the Roman version of car salesmen were promising you.