Epicurus Quotes

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.

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?

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Being happy is knowing how to be content with little

Live your life without attracting attention.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship.

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.

A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

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

Freedom is the greatest fruit of self sufficiency.

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

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

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

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?

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

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

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.

But the universe is infinite.

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

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

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

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

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

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.