Epicurus Quotes & Sayings

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. — Epicurus

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

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. — Epicurus

Those desires that do not bring pain if they are not satisfied are not necessary; and they are easily thrust aside whenever to satisfy them appears difficult or likely to cause injury. — Epicurus

When we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist. — Epicurus

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

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

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

The impassive soul disturbs neither itself nor others. — Epicurus

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity. — 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.19 — 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

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. For it is not continuous drinkings and revelings, nor the satisfaction of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table, which produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, searching out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banishing mere opinions, to which are due the greatest disturbance of the spirit. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

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

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. — Epicurus

Contented poverty is an honorable estate. — Epicurus

The most important consequence of self-sufficiency is freedom. — 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

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

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. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

The mind that is much elevated and insolent with prosperity, and cast down with adversity, is generally abject and base. — Epicurus

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. — 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

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

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

But the universe is infinite. — 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

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

Pleasure and pain moreover supply the motives of desire and of avoidance, and the springs of conduct generally. This being so, it clearly follows that actions are right and praiseworthy only as being a means to the attainment of a life of pleasure. But that which is not itself a means to anything else, but to which all else is a means, is what the Greeks term the telos, the highest, ultimate or final Good. — Epicurus

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

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

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

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. — Epicurus

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

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

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

The honor paid to a wise man is a great good for those who honor him. — Epicurus

86. [Our aim is] neither to achieve the impossible, even by force, nor to maintain a theory which is in all respects similar either to our discussions on the ways of life or to our clarifications of other questions in physics, such as the thesis that the totality [of things] consists of bodies and intangible nature, and that the elements are atomic, and all such things as are consistent with the phenomena in only one way. This — Epicurus

Two of Epicurus's early influences, Democritus and Pyrrho, had actually journeyed all the way to what is now India, where they had encountered Buddhism in the schools of the gymnosophists — Epicurus

The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so. — Epicurus

27. Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of firends. — Epicurus

Most men are in a coma when they are at rest and mad when they act. — 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 delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old. — 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

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

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. — Epicurus

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

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

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

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

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

Earthquakes may be brought about because wind is caught up in the earth, so the earth is dislocated in small masses and is continually shaken, and that causes it to sway. — Epicurus

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

The pleasant life is not produced by continual drinking and dancing, nor sexual intercourse, nor rare dishes of sea food 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

What was most important in Epicurus' philosophy of nature was the overall conviction that our life on this earth comes with no strings attached; that there is no Maker whose puppets we are; that there is no script for us to follow and be constrained by; that it is up to us to discover the real constraints which our own nature imposes on us. — Epicurus

Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good — Epicurus

Whatsoever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. 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. It is nothing, then, either to the living or to the dead, for with the living it is not and the dead exist no longer. — Epicurus

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

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

The purpose of all knowledge, metaphysical as well as scientific, is to achieve what Epicurus called ataraxia, freedom from irrational fears and anxieties of all sorts - in brief, peace of mind. — Epicurus

Neither one should hesitate about dedicating oneself to philosophy when young, nor should get tired of doing it when one's old, because no one is ever too young or too old to reach one's soul's healthy. — Epicurus

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

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. — 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

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. Or the said effects may be caused by the emergence of these bodies from a point above the earth and again by the earth's position in front of them; for nothing in our sensory experience is against this.45 Here two alternative explanations of "risings and settings" are offered; both are of equal value and equally true, since neither is contradicted by anything in our experience. On the contrary, 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

Death is nothing to us. When we exist, death is not; and when death exists, we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death, there is awareness. — 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, de rigueur for entry to the other Athenian schools of higher learning. Everyone in the Garden radiated earnestness and good cheer. The subject under discussion was happiness. — Epicurus

Launch your boat, blessed youth, and flee at full speed from every form of culture. — Epicurus

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

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. — Epicurus

Natural justice is a compact resulting from expediency by which men seek to prevent one man from injuring others and to protect him from being injured by them. — Epicurus

Many friends are the key to happiness — 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

He who least needs tomorrow, will most gladly greet tomorrow. — Epicurus

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

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

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

Death is nothing to us: for after our bodies have been dissolved by death they are without sensation, and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us. And therefore a right understanding of death makes mortality enjoyable, not because it adds to an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

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. — Epicurus

We ought to be thankful to nature for having made those things which are necessary easy to be discovered; while other things that are difficult to be known are not necessary. — Epicurus

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

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. — Epicurus

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

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. — Epicurus