EPICURUS

As written down by DIOGENES LAËRTIUS in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers


…..
Letter to Menoeceus

We must also reflect that of desires some are natural, others are groundless; and that of the natural some are necessary as well as natural, and some natural only. And of the necessary desires some are necessary if we are to be happy, some if the body is to be rid of uneasiness, some if we are even to live. He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquillity of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a happy life. For the end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear, and, when once we have attained all this, the tempest of the soul is laid;

…..

Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we always come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing.

.….
Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.

…..
When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and the aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do through ignorance, prejudice, or willful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not sexual lust, not the enjoyment of fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, that produces a pleasant life. It is rather sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs that lead to the tumult of the soul.

…..
It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and well and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and well and justly without living pleasantly.

…..
I know not how to conceive the good, apart from the pleasures of taste, of sex, of sound, and the pleasures of beautiful form.

……
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

…..
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

…..
Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.

…..
He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.

…..
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

…..
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

…..
I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.

…..
Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

…..
Why should I fear death?

If I am, then death is not.

If Death is, then I am not.

Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?

Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear.

Religious tyranny did domineer.

At length the mighty one of Greece

Began to assent the liberty of man.

…..
If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray for many evils to befall one another.

…..
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

…..
He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.

…..
Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us, since all good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death. Therefore the true belief that death is nothing to us makes a mortal life happy, not by adding to it an infinite time, but by taking away the desire for immortality. For there is no reason why the man who is thoroughly assured that there is nothing to fear in death should find anything to fear in life. So, too, he is foolish who says that he fears death, not because it will be painful when it comes, but because the anticipation of it is painful; for that which is no burden when it is present gives pain to no purpose when it is anticipated. Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist. It is therefore nothing either to the living or to the dead since it is not present to the living, and the dead no longer are.

…..
We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for happiness, seeing that when happiness is present, we have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything to possess it.

…..
Don't fear the gods,

Don't worry about death;

What is good is easy to get, and

What is terrible is easy to endure.

…..
The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.

…..
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.

…..