Less base the fear of death than fear of life.

The line contrasts two anxieties: the instinctive dread of dying versus a deeper, more corrosive dread of living—of facing responsibility, suffering, moral failure, or meaninglessness. By calling the fear of death “less base,” it implies that fearing death is natural and even dignified, while fearing life can be a kind of cowardice or spiritual evasion. The aphorism urges courage not merely at life’s end but in the daily act of living: to endure uncertainty, to act virtuously, and to accept the burdens of consciousness. In a religious-moral framework often associated with Young, it can also suggest that a well-lived life diminishes death’s terror, whereas a life avoided or squandered makes both living and dying fearful.