Epicurus Quotes

#1. Vain is the word of that philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man.

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#2. The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

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#3. Only the just man enjoys peace of mind.

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#4. Why are you afraid of death? Where you are, death is not. Where death is, you are not. What is it that you fear.

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#5. Without confidence, there is no friendship.

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#6. 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.

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#7. Injustice is not evil in itself, but only in the fear and apprehension that one will not escape those who have been set up to punish the offense.

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#8. Do everything like someone is gazing at you.

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#9. It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.

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#10. 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.

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#11. My garden does not whet the appetite; it satisfies it. It does not provoke thirst through heedless indulgence, but slakes it by proffering its natural remedy. Amid such pleasures as these have I grown old.

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#12. A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

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#13. What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not?

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#14. Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

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#15. I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

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

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#17. I spit upon luxurious pleasures, not for their own sake, but because of the inconveniences that follow them.

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#18. There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. For the atoms being infinite in number ... are borne on far out into space.

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#19. The opinions held by most people about the gods are not true conceptions of them but fallacious notions, according to which awful penalties are meted out to the evil and the greatest of blessings to the good.

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#20. If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.

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

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#22. Fortune seldom troubles the wise man. Reason has controlled his greatest and most important affairs, controls them throughout his life, and will continue to control them.

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#23. The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

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#24. We cannot live pleasantly without living wisely and nobly and righteously.

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#25. Thus that which is the most awful of evils, death, is nothing to us, since when we exist there is no death, and when there is death we do not exist.

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#26. A world is a circumscribed portion of sky ... it is a piece cut off from the infinite.

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#27. The impassive soul disturbs neither itself nor others.

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#28. 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.

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#29. So death, the most terrifying of ills, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist. It does not then concern either the living or the dead, since for the former it is not, and the latter are no more.

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#30. Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good

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#31. The honor paid to a wise man is a great good for those who honor him.

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

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#33. Let no one delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old.

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#34. What men fear is not that death is annihilation but that it is not.

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#35. We have been born once and there can be no second birth. Fir all eternity we shall no longer be. But you, although you are not master of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness ...

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#36. Live your life without attracting attention.

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#37. Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

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#38. All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy, sink under it.

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#39. Thanks be to blessed Nature that she has made what is necessary easy to obtain, and what is not easy unnecessary.

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#40. The words of that philosopher who offers no therapy for human suffering are empty and vain.

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#41. All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.

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#42. There is no such thing as justice or injustice among those beasts that cannot make agreements not to injure or be injured. This is also true of those tribes that are unable or unwilling to make agreements not to injure or be injured.

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#43. N.F.F.N.S.N.C. Non Fui; Fui; Non Sum; Non Curo. "I was not, I was, I am not, I care not." It's a Latin saying found on Roman grave markers. It means I wasn't bothered about not existing before I existed and I'm not bothered about not existing now that I don't exist.

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#44. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

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#45. I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not mind.

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#46. He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing .

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#47. The wise man neither rejects life nor fears death ... just as he does not necessarily choose the largest amount of food, but, rather, the pleasantest food, so he prefers not the longest time, but the most pleasant.

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#48. I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)

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#49. Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth .

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#50. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

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#51. Being happy is knowing how to be content with little

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#52. To eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf.

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#53. 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.

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#54. We must meditate on what brings happiness, since when it has, it has everything, and when he misses, we do everything to have it

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#55. The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

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#56. Some men spend their whole life furnishing for themselves the things proper to life without realizing that at our birth each of us was poured a mortal brew to drink.

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#57. We need to set our affections on one good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.

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#58. He who understands the limits of life knows that it is easy to obtain that which removes the pain of want and makes the whole of life complete and perfect. Thus he has no longer any need of things which involve struggle.

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#59. Any device whatever by which one frees himself from the fear of others is a natural good.

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#60. Haec ego non multis (scribo), sed tibi: satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus. I am writing this not to many, but to you: certainly we are a great enough audience for each other.

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#61. It is not the pretended but the real pursuit of philosophy that is needed for we do not need the appearance of good health but to enjoy it in truth.

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#62. He who doesn't find a little enough will find nothing enough.

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#63. Remember that the future is neither ours nor wholly not ours, so that we may neither count on it as sure to come nor abandon hope of it as certain not to be.

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#64. Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity.

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#65. To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries.

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#66. Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized.

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#67. I am grateful to blessed Nature, because she made what is necessary easy to acquire and what is hard to acquire unnecessary.

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#68. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It

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#69. A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand, there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

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#70. All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help

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#71. A beneficent person is like a fountain watering the earth, and spreading fertility; it is, therefore, more delightful to give than to receive.

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#72. The flesh believes that pleasure is limitless and that it requires unlimited time; but the mind, understanding the end and limit of the flesh and ridding itself of fears of the future, secures a complete life and has no longer any need for unlimited time.

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#73. Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. Epicurus taught: Pleasure, defined as freedom from pain, is the highest good.

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#74. Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little

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#75. We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

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#76. 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.

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#77. A man who causes fear cannot be
free from fear.

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#78. Most beautiful is the sight of those near and dear to us when our original kinship makes us of one mind.

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#79. The noble man is chiefly concerned with wisdom and friendship; of these, the former is a mortal good, the latter and immortal one.

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#80. Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.

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#81. We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

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#82. There is nothing to fear from gods, There is nothing to feel in death, Good can be attained, Evil can be endured.

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#83. Justice has no independent existence; it results from mutual contracts, and establishes itself wherever there is a mutual engagement to guard against doing or sustaining mutual injury.

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#84. There is nothing terrible in life for the man who realizes there is nothing terrible in death.

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#85. Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of the whole man, by far the most important is the acquisition of friendship.

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#86. The term "incorporeal" is properly applied only to the void, which cannot act or be acted on. Since the soul can act and be acted upon, it is corporeal.

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#87. It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

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#88. Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure.

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#89. It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

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#90. We begin every act of choice and avoidance from pleasure, and it is to pleasure that we return using our experience of pleasure as the criterion of every good thing.

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#91. Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy.

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#92. 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.

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#93. If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy.

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#94. The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.

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#95. The cry of the flesh bids us escape from hunger, thirst, and cold; for he who is free of these and expects to remain so might live in happiness even with Zeus.

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#96. Pleasure is the first good. It is the beginning of every choice and every aversion. It is the absence of pain in the body and of troubles in the soul.

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#97. The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.

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#98. Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.

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#99. Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul.

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#100. 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.

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