Top 174 Quotes & Sayings by Epicurus - Page 2

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world.

For a wrongdoer to be undetected is difficult; and for him to have confidence that his concealment will continue is impossible.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Gratitude is a virtue that has commonly profit annexed to it.

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

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth .

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

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

Death is meaningless to the living because they are living, and meaningless to the dead… because they are dead.

Men are so thoughtless, nay, so mad, that some, through fear of death, force themselves to die.

Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good

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

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

Moreover, the universe as a whole is infinite, for whatever is limited has an outermost edge to limit it, and such an edge is defined by something beyond. Since the universe has no edge, it has no limit; and since it lacks a limit, it is infinite and unbounded. Moreover, the universe is infinite both in the number of its atoms and in the extent of its void.

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

Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live.

An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods.

But the universe is infinite.

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.

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.

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

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.

Without confidence, there is no friendship.

Virtue consisteth of three parts,--temperance, fortitude, and justice.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.