3 guys walk into a bar... Socrates, Epictetus, and Descartes walk into a bar. Socrates goes up to the bartender first and the bartender asks him: ""what's your poison?"" Socrates say hemlock, takes a swig of some the bartender gives him and promptly dies. Next, Epictetus goes up to the bartender who asks Epictetus what he can bring him. Epictetus responds with: ""It matters not, I will choose to like whatever you bring."" So the bartender gets him a beer. Finally, Descartes goes up to the bartender. The bartender asks him if he can get him a beer like his friends, but Descartes says ""I think not"" and then disappears from existence. TL;DR version: Socrates committed assisted-suicide by drinking hemlock. Epictetus had a whole ""mind-over-matter"" thing going for him so he could deal whatever life brought him. And, Descartes was the guy who said ""Cogito ergo sum"" (I think, therefore I am).