Epicurus Quotations

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life far the greatest is the possession of Friendship.

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.

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.

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 in live honestly as well as die honestly.

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?

The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

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

The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so, cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, than they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?

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

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth .

Only the just man enjoys peace of mind.

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.

Justice is never anything in itself, but in the dealings of men with one another in any place whatever and at any time. It is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fortune seldom troubles the wise man. Reason has controlled his greatest and most important affairs, controls them throughout his life, and will continue to control them.

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.

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

Without confidence, there is no friendship.

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 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.

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

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.

If the gods have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not all-powerful. If they are neither able nor willing, they are neither all-powerful or benevolent. If they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does it exist?

Being happy is knowing how to be content with little

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.

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

But the universe is infinite.

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

Many friends are the key to happiness

Do everything like someone is gazing at you.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

A world is a circumscribed portion of sky... it is a piece cut off from the infinite.

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

He who needs riches least, enjoys riches most.

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.

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

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.

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