Epicurus Quotes

We have collected and put the best Epicurus quotes about the meaning of life from around the world. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

Epicurus (341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded a highly influential school of philosophy now called Epicureanism. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus, Aristotle, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as “the Garden”, in Athens. Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects, and he openly allowed women to join the school as a matter of policy. An extremely prolific writer, he is said to have originally written over 300 works on various subjects, but the vast majority of these writings have been lost. Only three letters written by him—the Letters to MenoeceusPythocles, and Herodotus—and two collections of quotes—the Principle Doctrines and the Vatican Sayings—have survived intact, along with a few fragments and quotations of his other writings. Most knowledge of his teachings comes from later authors, particularly the Roman poet Lucretius, the biographer Diogenes Laërtius, the statesman Cicero, and the philosophers Philodemus and Sextus Empiricus.

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? – Epicurus

Don’t fear god,
Don’t worry about death;
What is good is easy to get, and
What is terrible is easy to endure. – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes

Epicurus Quotes

Short And Powerful Epicurus Quotes

A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear. – Epicurus

All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal. – Epicurus

All things are in flux. – Epicurus

Contented poverty is an honorable estate. – Epicurus

Death is nothing to us. – Epicurus

Do everything like someone is gazing at you. – Epicurus

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. – Epicurus

Fortune seldom troubles the wise man. – Epicurus

He who doesn’t find a little enough will find nothing enough. – Epicurus

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

He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing. – Epicurus

He who least needs tomorrow will most gladly greet tomorrow. – Epicurus

He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most. – Epicurus

I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not mind. – Epicurus

I was not; I was, I am not; I care not. – Epicurus

It is sweeter to give than to receive. – Epicurus

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed. – Epicurus

Moral freedom and determinism are by no means incompatible. – Epicurus

My heart is full of fun when I have bread and water – Epicurus

Never say that I have taken it, only that I have given it back. – Epicurus

Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little. – Epicurus

Only the just man enjoys peace of mind. – Epicurus

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth. – Epicurus

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest. – Epicurus

Stranger, here you do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure. – Epicurus

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one. – Epicurus

The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it. – Epicurus

The impassive soul disturbs neither itself nor others. – Epicurus

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool. – Epicurus

The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised. – Epicurus

Things that are now and are to me come and have been. – Epicurus

To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries. – Epicurus

Virtue consisteth of three parts,—temperance, fortitude, and justice. – Epicurus

We became men once and one cannot become twice. – Epicurus

When you die, your mind will be gone even faster than your body. – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About God

A strict belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand there is comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot, or he can and does not want to. – Epicurus

For the gods exist, since the knowledge about them is obvious. – Epicurus

God is not to be feared, death is not to be expected and what is good is easy to get and what is terrible is easy to endure. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

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

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another. – Epicurus

If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. – Epicurus

If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. – Epicurus

If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another. – Epicurus

If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world? – Epicurus

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? – Epicurus

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

The blessed and indestructible being of the divine has no concerns of its own, nor does it make trouble for others. It is not affected by feelings of anger or benevolence, because these are found where there is lack of strength. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

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

Epicurus Quotes

Epicurus Quotes

Epicurus Quotes On Philosophy

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

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. – Epicurus

Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering. – Epicurus

He who says either that the time for philosophy has not yet come or that it has passed is like someone who says that the time for happiness has not yet come or that it has passed. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy. – Epicurus

In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. – Epicurus

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor… – Epicurus

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

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. – Epicurus

That person, because he is young, soon to philosophize, nor because he is old, never tired of philosophizing, for person shall undertake or too early or too late to ensure the health of the soul . And whoever said that the time for philosophy has not yet come, or that time is past, is like one who says, speaking of happiness, that time has not come or is gone. – Epicurus

True wisdom, the real superiority does not win by fighting but by letting it happen for themselves. Plants that resist wind break, while the flexible plants survive the hurricane. – Epicurus

Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either if it does not expel the suffering of the mind. – Epicurus

Vain is the word of that philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. – Epicurus

We must laugh and philosophize and manage our households and look after our other affairs all at the same time, and never stop proclaiming the words of the true philosophy. – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes On Life

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

A large fortune is accumulated by extremely hard work, but thus, life becomes miserable. – Epicurus

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

Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life. – Epicurus

Each of us left with the feeling that life has just been born. – Epicurus

For if you will do this, you will never be disturbed while asleep or awake by imagined fears, but you will live like a god among men. For a man who lives among immortal blessings is in no respect like a mortal being. – Epicurus

I have anticipated you, Fortune, and entrenched myself against all your secret attacks. And we will not give ourselves up as captives to you or to any other circumstance; but when it is time for us to go, spitting contempt on life and on those who here vainly cling to it, we will leave life crying aloud in a glorious triumph-song that we have lived well. – Epicurus

immortality. For there is nothing terrible in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living. – Epicurus

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 a pleasant life. – Epicurus

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, and honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, and honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably. – Epicurus

It is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of merrymaking, not sexual love, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest disturbances take possession of the soul. – Epicurus

It is not possible for a man to banish all fear of the essential questions of life unless he understands the nature of the universe and unless he banishes all consideration that the fables told about the universe could be true. Therefore a man cannot enjoy full happiness, untroubled by turmoil, unless he acts to gain knowledge of the nature of things. – Epicurus

Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor. – Epicurus

Live in obscurity. – Epicurus

Live unnoticed-lathe viōsas (λάθε βιώσας). – Epicurus

Live your life without attracting attention. – Epicurus

Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized. – Epicurus

Meditate then, on all these things, and on those things which are related to them, both day and night, and both alone and with like-minded companions. For if you will do this, you will never be disturbed while asleep or awake by imagined fears, but you will live like a god among men. For a man who lives among immortal blessings is in no respect like a mortal being. – Epicurus

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

Necessity is a bad thing, but there is no necessity to live with necessity. – Epicurus

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live with necessity. – Epicurus

Of all the gifts that wise Providence grants us to make life full and happy, friendship is the most beautiful. – Epicurus

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make life entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship. – Epicurus

One who understands the limits of the good life knows that what eliminates the pains brought on by need and what makes the whole of life perfect is easily obtained, so that there is no need for enterprises that entail the struggle for success. – Epicurus

Peasure is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of merrymaking, not sexual love, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest disturbances take possession of the soul. – Epicurus

Question each of your desires: What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not? – Epicurus

Remember that you are mortal and have a limited time to live and have devoted yourself to discussions on nature for all time and eternity and have seen. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live. – Epicurus

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

The pleasant life is not produced by continual drinking and dancing, nor sexual intercourse, nor rare dishes of seafood and other delicacies of a luxurious table. On the contrary, it is produced by sober reasoning which examines the motives for every choice and avoidance, driving away beliefs which are the source of mental disturbances. – Epicurus

There is nothing terrible in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living. – Epicurus

Those who tell the young man to live well and the old man to die well is nothing but a fool, not only for what life has in happiness to both young and old, but also for one must be careful to live honestly as well as die honestly. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

We should not view the young man as happy, but rather the old man whose life has been fortunate. The young man at the height of his powers is often befuddled by chance and driven from his course; but the old man has dropped anchor in old age as in a harbor, since he secures in sure and thankful memory goods for which he was once scarcely confident of. – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes On Death

A right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to it an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Against other things it is possible to obtain security, but when it comes to death, we human beings all live in an unwalled city. – Epicurus

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

Death is nothing to us, because a body that has been dispersed into elements experiences no sensations, and the absence of sensation is nothing to us. – Epicurus

Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not. – Epicurus

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

Great quotes on death by the ancient Greek philosopher that will make you think! – Epicurus

If death causes you no pain when you’re dead, it is foolish to allow the fear of it to cause you pain now. – Epicurus

If death is, we are not. If we are, death is not. – Epicurus

It is impossible for a man who secretly violates the terms of the agreement not to harm or be harmed to feel confident that he will remain undiscovered, even if he has already escaped ten thousand times; for until his death he is never sure that he will not be detected. – Epicurus

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

Sometimes the fear of death that drives men to death. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

There is nothing terrible in life for the man who realizes there is nothing terrible in death. – Epicurus

Therefore, foolish is the man who says that he fears death, not because it will cause pain when it arrives but because anticipation of it is painful. – Epicurus

This science explains to us the meaning of terms, the nature of predication, and the law of consistency and contradiction; secondly, a thorough knowledge of the facts of nature relieves us of the burden of superstition, frees us from fear of death, and shields us against the disturbing effects of ignorance, which is often in itself a cause of terrifying apprehensions. – Epicurus

Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not? – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes On Friendship

A friendship must be sought for itself, but it’s useful for the origin. – Epicurus

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

Among the things which wisdom is ammunition for the happiness of all life, by far the most important is the possession of friendship. – Epicurus

Friendship dances around the world bidding us all to awaken to the recognition of happiness. – Epicurus

It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. – Epicurus

It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confident knowledge that they will help us. – Epicurus

It’s not the intervention of our friends who helps us but knowing we can always count on them. – Epicurus

Neither he who is always seeking material aid from his friends nor he who never considers such aid is a true friend; for one engages in petty trade, taking a favor instead of gratitude, and the other deprives himself of hope for the future. – Epicurus

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

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship. – Epicurus

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

The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship. – Epicurus

The wise man feels no more pain when being tortured himself than when his friend tortured, and will die for him; for if he betrays his friend, his whole life will be confounded by distrust and completely upset. – Epicurus

To eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf. – Epicurus

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

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink. – Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes On Happiness

A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exempt from movements of anger and partiality, for every such movement implies weakness. – Epicurus

Being happy is knowing how to be content with little. – Epicurus

Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness. – Epicurus

He who says either that the time for philosophy has not yet come or that it has passed, is like someone who says that the time for happiness has not yet come or that it has passed. – Epicurus

How unhappy are the lives of men! How purblind their hearts! – Epicurus

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires. – Epicurus

It is not the young man who should be considered fortunate but the old man who has lived well, because the young man in his prime wanders much by chance, vacillating in his beliefs, while the old man has docked in the harbor, having safeguarded his true happiness. – Epicurus

Of all the means to ensure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends. – Epicurus

Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

The cry of the flesh is not to be hungry, thirsty, or cold; for he who is free of these and is confident of remain so might vie even with Zeus for happiness. – Epicurus

The happiest men are those who have reached the point where they have nothing to fear from those who surround them. – Epicurus

Unlike at the Academy or the Lyceum, women, some of them concubines and mistresses, as well as a few slaves, joined the conversation. Further, many of the students here had arrived without academic credentials in mathematics or music. Everyone in the Garden radiated earnestness and good cheer. The subject under discussion was happiness. – Epicurus

Unlimited time and limited time afford an equal amount of pleasure, if we measure the limits of that pleasure by reason. – Epicurus

We have been born once and cannot be born a second time; for all eternity we shall no longer exist. But you, although you are not in control of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness. Life is wasted by delaying, and each one of us dies amid worries. – Epicurus

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

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it. – Epicurus

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

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. – Epicurus

What will happen to me if that which this desire seeks is achieved, and what if it is not? – Epicurus

With the Epicureans, it was never science for the sake of science, but always science for the sake of human happiness. – Epicurus

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

Epicurus Quotes

Epicurus Quotes

More Epicurus Quotes

A free man cannot acquire many possessions, because this is no easy feat without becoming a hireling of mobs or dynasts. And yet he has a constant abundance of everything, and if he should chance to gain many possessions, he could easily portion them out so as to win his neighbors’ good will. – Epicurus

A large fortune is accumulated by extremely hard work, but [thus] life becomes miserable. – Epicurus

A person who doubts his senses will either lose contact with the reality of the surrounding world, like the skeptics, and become psychologically isolated and insecure; or he will fall prey, as do the religionists, to theological explanations which do not allay anxiety but foment it. – Epicurus

A strict belief in fate is the worst of slavery, imposing upon our necks an everlasting lord and tyrant, whom we are to stand in awe of night and day. – Epicurus

About every desire, we must ask: what advantage does result if I do not meet these criteria? – Epicurus

All our actions are intended to remove from us the pain and fear. – Epicurus

Any device whatever by which one frees himself from fear is a natural good. – Epicurus

As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters. – Epicurus

By pleasure, we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Every pain is easy to disregard; for that which is intense is of brief duration, and those bodily pains that last long are mild. – Epicurus

Fools are tormented by the memory of former evils; wise men have the delight of renewing in grateful remembrance the blessings of the past. – Epicurus

Fools are tormented by the memory of former evils; wise men have the delight of renewing in grateful remembrance the blessings of the past. We have the power both to obliterate our misfortunes in an almost perpetual forgetfulness and to summon up pleasant and agreeable memories of our successes. But when we fix our mental vision closely on the events of the past, then sorrow or gladness ensues according as these were evil or good. – Epicurus

I am grateful to blessed Nature because she made what is necessary easy to acquire and what is hard to acquire unnecessary. – Epicurus

I am writing this not to many, but to you; certainly we are a great enough audience for each other. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

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

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

If a person fights the clear evidence of his senses, he will never be able to share in genuine tranquillity. – Epicurus

If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich. – Epicurus

If you summarily rule out any single sensation and do not make a distinction between the element of belief that is superimposed on a percept that awaits verification and what is actually present in sensation or in the feelings or some percept of the mind itself, you will cast doubt on all other sensations by your unfounded interpretation and consequently abandon all the criteria of truth. – Epicurus

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

In cases of interpreted data, if you accept as true those that need verification as well as those that do not, you will still be in error, since the whole question at issue in every judgment of what is true or not true will be left intact. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Injustice is not intrinsically bad: people regard it as evil only because it is accompanied by the fear that they will not escape the officials who are appointed to punish evil actions. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Man is himself a causal agent in nature and is morally responsible when he acts freely from his own settled character and in his own capacity as an individual, provided he is exempt from external force or pressure. – Epicurus

Man loses all semblance of mortality by living in the midst of immortal blessings. – Epicurus

Meditate then, on all these things, and on those things which are related to them, both day and night, and both alone and with like-minded companions. – Epicurus

Men inflict injuries from hatred, jealousy or contempt, but the wise man masters all these passions by means of reason. – Epicurus

Men, believing in myths, will always fear something terrible, everlasting punishment as certain or probable . . . Men base all these fears not on mature opinions, but on irrational fancies, that they are more disturbed by fear of the unknown than by facing facts. Peace of mind lies in being delivered from all these fears. – Epicurus

Most men are in a coma when they are at rest and mad when they act. – Epicurus

Natural justice is a symbol or expression of usefulness, to prevent one person from harming or being harmed by another. – Epicurus

Natural wealth is limited and easily obtained; the wealth defined by vain fancies is always beyond reach. – Epicurus

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity. – Epicurus

No pleasure is evil in itself, but the means by which certain pleasures are gained bring pains many times greater than the pleasures. – Epicurus

No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves. – Epicurus

No pleasure is intrinsically bad, but what causes pleasure is accompanied by many things that disturb pleasure. – Epicurus

Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance. – Epicurus

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. – Epicurus

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little. – Epicurus

Of our desires some are natural and necessary, others are natural but not necessary; and others are neither natural nor necessary, but are due to groundless opinion. – Epicurus

Of the desires, some are natural and necessary, other natural and unnecessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, but the effect of opinions hollow. – Epicurus

Pleasure and pain moreover supply the motives of desire and of avoidance, and the springs of conduct generally. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss. – Epicurus

The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles. – Epicurus

The blessed and indestructible being of the divine has no concerns of its own, nor does it make trouble for others. It is not affected by feelings of anger or benevolence, because these are found where there is lack of strength. – Epicurus

The conquest of fear, especially fear of unaccountable divine beings who meddle in nature at will, means a reduction in the sum total of human pain and suffering and opens the door to the calm acceptance of a new picture of the world—a world in which nature is autonomous and where there are ideal beings who never meddle. – Epicurus

The greater the Difficulty the more Glory in surmounting it, and the loss of false Joys secures to us a much better Possession of real ones. – Epicurus

The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully. – Epicurus

The man who is not content to just never be satisfied with nothing. – Epicurus

The man who says that all events are necessitated has no ground for criticizing the man who says that not all events are necessitated. For according to him, this is itself a necessitated event. – Epicurus

The most important consequence of self-sufficiency is freedom. – Epicurus

The risings and settings of the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies may come about from the lighting up and quenching of their fires; for nothing in our sensory experience runs counter to this hypothesis. – Epicurus

The soul neither rids itself of disturbance nor gains a worthwhile joy through the possession of greatest wealth, nor by the honor and admiration bestowed by the crowd, or through any of the other things sought by unlimited desire. – Epicurus

The study of nature does not create men who are fond of boasting and chattering or who show off the culture that impresses the many, but rather men who are strong and self-sufficient, and who take pride in their own personal qualities not in those that depend on external circumstances. – Epicurus

The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain. – Epicurus

The things you really need are few and easy to come by; but the things you can imagine you need are infinite, and you will never be satisfied. – Epicurus

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

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself… – Epicurus

The time when you should most of all withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd. – Epicurus

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure, but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. – Epicurus

The wise man who has become accustomed to necessities knows better how to share with others than how to take from them, so great a treasure of self-sufficiency has he found. – Epicurus

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. – Epicurus

There is also a limit in simple living, and he who fails to understand this falls into an error as great as that of the man who gives way to extravagance. – Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men in their various relations with each other, in whatever circumstances they may be, that they will neither injure nor be injured. – Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men. – Epicurus

We have all seen fires die down from lack of fuel, and lights obscured or blacked out by objects coming in front of them. – Epicurus

We have the power both to obliterate our misfortunes in an almost perpetual forgetfulness and to summon up pleasant and agreeable memories of our successes. – Epicurus

We must envy no one; for the good do not deserve envy and as for the bad, the more they prosper, the more they ruin it for themselves. – Epicurus

We must free ourselves from the prison of public education and politics. – Epicurus

We should find solace for misfortune in the happy memory of what has been and in the knowledge that what has been cannot be undone. – Epicurus

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink. – Epicurus

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. – Epicurus

What cannot be satisfied is not a man’s stomach, as most men think, but rather the false opinion that the stomach requires unlimited filling. – Epicurus

When someone admits one and rejects another which is equally in accordance with the appearances, it is clear that he has quitted all physical explanation and descended into myth. – Epicurus

When, therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of profligates and those that consist in sensuality, as is supposed by some who are either ignorant or disagree with us or do not understand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind. – Epicurus

Where without any change in circumstances the things held to be just by law are seen not to correspond with the concept of justice in actual practice, such laws are not really just. – Epicurus

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth is unhappy, though he is master of the world. – Epicurus

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

Epicurus Quotes

Epicurus Quotes From Wikiquote

  • Ἄφοβον ὁ θεός,
    ἀνύποπτον ὁ θάνατος
    καὶ τἀγαθὸν μὲν εὔκτητον,
    τὸ δὲ δεινὸν εὐεκκαρτέρητον

    • Don’t fear god,
      Don’t worry about death;
      What is good is easy to get, and
      What is terrible is easy to endure.

      • The “Tetrapharmakos” [τετραφάρμακος], or “The four-part cure” of Epicurus, from the “Herculaneum Papyrus”, 1005, 4.9–14 of Philodemus, as translated in The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia (1994) edited by D. S. Hutchinson, p. vi
  • Δικαιοσύνης καρπὸς μέγιστος ἀταραξία.
    • The greatest reward of righteousness is peace of mind.
      • Attributed to Epicurus by Clement of Alexandria in Stromata
  • 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.
    • From the esplanade wall at Oenoanda, now in Turkey, as recorded by Diogenes of Oenoanda
  • Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. And to say that the season for studying philosophy has not yet come, or that it is past and gone, is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet or that it is now no more. Therefore, both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom, the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come. So we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed towards attaining it.
    • “Letter to Menoeceus”, as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 167
    • Variant translation: Let no one delay to study philosophy while he is young, and when he is old let him not become weary of the study; for no man can ever find the time unsuitable or too late to study the health of his soul. And he who asserts either that it is not yet time to philosophize, or that the hour is passed, is like a man who should say that the time is not yet come to be happy, or that it is too late. So that both young and old should study philosophy, the one in order that, when he is old, he many be young in good things through the pleasing recollection of the past, and the other in order that he may be at the same time both young and old, in consequence of his absence of fear for the future.
  • τὸ φρικωδέστατον οὖν τῶν κακῶν ὁ θάνατος οὐθὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς͵ ἐπειδήπερ ὅταν μὲν ἡμεῖς ὦμεν͵ ὁ θάνατος οὐ πάρεστιν͵ ὅταν δὲ ὁ θάνατος παρῇ͵ τόθ΄ ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐσμέν.
    • 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.
    • “Letter to Menoeceus”, as translated in Stoic and Epicurean (1910) by Robert Drew Hicks, p. 169
  • He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
    • The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O’Connor, p. 99
  • Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.
    • The Essential Epicurus : Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican sayings, and fragments (1993) edited by Eugene Michael O’Connor, p. 99

Sovereign Maxims

The 40 “Sovran Maxims” (or “Sovereign Maxims), or “Principal Doctrines” as translated by Robert Drew Hicks
  • A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is exempt from movements of anger and partiality, for every such movement implies weakness. (1)
    • Variant translations:
      What is blessed and indestructible has no troubles itself, nor does it give trouble to anyone else, so that it is not affected by feelings of anger or gratitude. For all such things are signs of weakness. (Hutchinson)
      The blessed and immortal is itself free from trouble nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore it is not constrained either by anger of favour. For such sentiments exist only in the weak (O’Connor)
      A blessed and imperishable being neither has trouble itself nor does it cause trouble for anyone else; therefore, it does not experience anger nor gratitude, for such feelings signify weakness. (unsourced translation)
  • Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡδέως ζῆν ἄνευ τοῦ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως, οὐδὲ φρονίμως καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ἄνευ τοῦ ἡδέως. ὅτῳ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ ὑπάρχει ἐξ οὗ ζῆν φρονίμως, καὶ καλῶς καὶ δικαίως ὑπάρχει, οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτον ἡδέως ζῆν.
    • It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life. (5)
  • No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves. (8)
    • Variant translation: No pleasure is itself a bad thing, but the things that produce some kinds of pleasure, bring along with them unpleasantness that is much greater than the pleasure itself.
  • 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. (12)
    • Variant translation: One cannot rid himself of his primal fears if he does not understand the nature of the universe, but instead suspects the truth of some mythical story. So without the study of nature, there can be no enjoyment of pure pleasure. [1]
    • The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity. (15)
  • Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life. (16).
  • Ὁ δίκαιος ἀταρακτότατος, ὁ δ᾽ ἄδικος πλείστης ταραχῆς γέμων.
    • The just man is most free from disturbance, while the unjust is full of the utmost disturbance. (17)
  • The flesh receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the mind, intellectually grasping what the end and limit of the flesh is, and banishing the terrors of the future, procures a complete and perfect life, and we have no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless the mind does not shun pleasure, and even when circumstances make death imminent, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best life. (20)
  • 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. (22)
  • If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to discriminate with respect to that which awaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that which is already present, whether in sensation or in feelings or in any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw into confusion even the rest of your sensations by your groundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standard of truth altogether. If in your ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does not, you will not escape error, as you will be maintaining complete ambiguity whenever it is a case of judging between right and wrong opinion. (24)
  • Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. (28)
  • Of our desires some are natural and necessary, others are natural but not necessary; and others are neither natural nor necessary, but are due to groundless opinion. (29)
  • Natural justice is a symbol or expression of usefulness, to prevent one person from harming or being harmed by another. (31)
    • Variant: Natural justice is a pledge of reciprocal benefit, to prevent one man from harming or being harmed by another.
  • Those animals which are incapable of making binding agreements with one another not to inflict nor suffer harm are without either justice or injustice; and likewise for those peoples who either could not or would not form binding agreements not to inflict nor suffer harm. (32)
  • It is impossible for a man who secretly violates the terms of the agreement not to harm or be harmed to feel confident that he will remain undiscovered, even if he has already escaped ten thousand times; for until his death he is never sure that he will not be detected. (35)
  • Among the things held to be just by law, whatever is proved to be of advantage in men’s dealings has the stamp of justice, whether or not it be the same for all; but if a man makes a law and it does not prove to be mutually advantageous, then this is no longer just. And if what is mutually advantageous varies and only for a time corresponds to our concept of justice, nevertheless for that time it is just for those who do not trouble themselves about empty words, but look simply at the facts. (37)
  • Where without any change in circumstances the things held to be just by law are seen not to correspond with the concept of justice in actual practice, such laws are not really just; but wherever the laws have ceased to be advantageous because of a change in circumstances, in that case the laws were for that time just when they were advantageous for the mutual dealings of the citizens, and subsequently ceased to be just when they were no longer advantageous. (38)
  • Those who were best able to provide themselves with the means of security against their neighbors, being thus in possession of the surest guarantee, passed the most agreeable life in each other’s society; and their enjoyment of the fullest intimacy was such that, if one of them died before his time, the survivors did not mourn his death as if it called for sympathy. (40)

Disputed

  • 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?
    • This attribution occurs in chapter 13 (Ioan. Graphei, 1532, p. 494) of the Christian church father’s Lactantius’s De Ira Dei (c. 318):
“God,” he [Epicurus] says, “either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot,
or can but does not want to,
or neither wishes to nor can,
or both wants to and can.
If he wants to and cannot, then he is weak and this does not apply to god.
If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful which is equally foreign to god’’s nature.
If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful, and so not a god.
If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?
Lactantius, On the Anger of God, 13.19
  • Charles Bray, in his 1863 The Philosophy of Necessity: Or, Natural Law as Applicable to Moral, Mental, and Social Science quotes Epicurus without citation as saying a variant of the above statement (p. 41) (with “is not omnipotent” for “is impotent”). This quote appeared in “On the proofs of the existence of God: a lecture and answer questions” (1960) by professor Kryvelev I.A. (Крывелёв И.А. О доказательствах бытия божия: лекция и ответы на вопросы. М., 1960). And N. A. Nicholson, in his 1864 Philosophical Papers (p. 40), attributes “the famous questions” to Epicurus, using the wording used earlier by Hume (with “is he” for “he is”). Hume’s statement occurs in Book X (p. 186) of his renowned Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, published posthumously in 1779. The character Philo precedes the statement with “Epicurus’s old questions are yet unanswered.…”. Hume is following the enormously influential Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (1697–1702) of Pierre Bayle, which quotes Lactantius attributing the questions to Epicurus (Desoer, 1820, p. 479).
  • There has also arisen a further disputed extension, for which there has been found no published source prior to The Heretic’s Handbook of Quotations: Cutting Comments on Burning Issues (1992) by Charles Bufe, p. 186: “Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Quotes about Epicurus

  • For if they imagine infinite spaces of time before the world, during which God could not have been idle, in like manner they may conceive outside the world infinite realms of space, in which, if any one says that the Omnipotent cannot hold His hand from working, will it not follow that they must adopt Epicurus’ dream of innumerable worlds? with this difference only, that he asserts that they are formed and destroyed by the fortuitous movements of atoms, while they will hold that they are made by God’s hand, if they maintain that, throughout the boundless immensity of space, stretching interminably in every direction round the world, God cannot rest, and that the worlds which they suppose Him to make cannot be destroyed. … there is no place beside the world …no time before the world.
    • Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book XI, Ch. 5 “That We Ought Not to Seek to Comprehend the Infinite Ages of Time Before the World, Nor the Infinite Realms of Space”
  • Verily, no modern atheist, Mr. Huxley included, can outvie Epicurus in materialism; he can but mimic him. And what is his “ protoplasm.” but a rechauffe of the speculations of the Hindu Swabhavikas or Pantheists, who assert that all things, the gods as well as men and animals, are born from Swabhava or their own nature?! As to Epicurus, this is what Lucretius makes him say: “The soul, thus produced, must be material, because we trace it issuing from a material source; because it exists, and exists alone in a material system ; is nourished by material food ; grows with the growth of the body; becomes matured with its maturity; declines with its decay; and hence, whether belonging to man or brute, must die with its death.” Nevertheless, we would remind the reader that Epicurus is here speaking of the Astral Soul, not of Divine Spirit. Still, if we rightly understand the above, Mr. Huxley’s “mutton protoplasm” is of a very ancient origin, and can claim for its birthplace, Athens, and for its cradle, the brain of old Epicurus. p. 250
    • H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, The Veil of Isis, Part 1, Science, (1877)
  • Truly says Cudworth that the greatest ignorance of which our modern wiseacres accuse the ancients is their belief in the soul’s immortality. Like the old skeptic of Greece, our scientists—to use an expression of the same Dr. Cudworth—are afraid that if they admit spirits and apparitions they must admit a God too; and there is nothing too absurd, he adds, for them to suppose, in order to keep out the existence of God. The great body of ancient materialists, skeptical as they now seem to us, thought otherwise, and Epicurus, who rejected the soul’s immortality, believed still in a God, and Demokritus fully conceded the reality of apparitions. The preexistence and God-like powers of the human spirit were believed in by most all the sages of ancient days. p. 251
    • H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, The Veil of Isis, Part 1, Science, (1877)
  • We know, that of all living beings man is the best formed, and, as the gods belong to this number, they must have a human form. … I do not mean to say that the gods have body and blood in them; but I say that they seem as if they had bodies with blood in them. . . , Epicurus, for whom hidden things were as tangible as if he had touched them with his finger, teaches us that gods are not generally visible, but that they are intelligible; that they are not bodies having a certain solidity . . . but that we can recognize them by their passing images; that as there are atoms enough in the infinite space to produce such images, these are produced before us . . . and make us realize what are these happy, immortal beings.
    • Cicero in De Natura Deorum – On the Nature of the GodsBook I, Section 18 (45 BC)
  • Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra
    Processit longe flammantia moenia mundi
    Atque omne immensum peragravit, mente animoque.

    • So the vital strength of his spirit won through, and he made his way far outside the flaming walls of the world and ranged over the measureless whole, both in mind and spirit.
    • Lucretius, in De Rerum Natura, Book I, line 72

Quotes about Epicureans

  • “The Epicureans in their writings established this precept: always keep in your mind one of those ancients who practiced virtue.” – Marcus Aurelius (The Essential Marcus Aurelius)
  • “The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy’s camp – not as a deserter but as a scout. (Letters, 2)” – Seneca (What Seneca Really Said about Epicureanism)

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