Epicurus Quotes

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

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

“You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”

— Epicurus

“Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

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.

— Epicurus

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

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

— 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

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

— 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

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

— 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

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

— Epicurus

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

— 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

“He who least needs tomorrow, will most gladly greet tomorrow.”

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

“With the Epicureans it was never science for the sake of science but always science for the sake of human happiness.”

— 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

Contented poverty is an honorable estate.

— Epicurus

“Today the doctrine of metaphysical free will appears to us as one of those archaic relics of traditional religion that Epicurus and Lucretius should have done their utmost to combat. Moral freedom and determinism are by no means incompatible. Man is himself a causal agent in nature and is morally responsible when he acts "freely," i.e., from his own settled character and in his own capacity as an individual, provided he is exempt from external force or pressure.”

— Epicurus

“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.”

— 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

“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

“The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship.”

— Epicurus

“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.”

— Epicurus

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

— 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

“Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.”

— 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

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

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

“When we say that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasure of the profligate or that which depends on physical enjoyment
as some think who do not understand our teachings, disagree with them, or give them an evil interpretation
but by pleasure we mean the state wherein the body is free from pain and the mind from anxiety.”

— Epicurus

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

— 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

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

— Epicurus

“Being happy is knowing how to be content with little”

— 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

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

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

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

“He who doesn't find a little enough will find nothing enough.”

— Epicurus

“There is nothing terrible in life for the man who realizes there is nothing terrible in death.”

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus

“Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.”

— Epicurus

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

— Epicurus