Live as long as you can. Die when you can't help it.

Taken at face value, the line is a blunt, almost stoic credo: cling to life while agency remains, and accept death only when it is unavoidable. Its force comes from the contrast between the active imperative (“Live…”) and the resigned concession (“Die…”), suggesting a philosophy of endurance rather than romanticizing mortality. Read as a James Brown sentiment, it also fits a public persona built on grit, survival, and refusing to yield—an ethic of pushing through hardship until circumstances make continuation impossible. The aphorism’s spareness makes it adaptable as both motivational counsel and darkly comic realism about human limits.