The philosophy of Epicurus (341–270 B.C.E.) was a complete and interdependent system, involving a view of the goal of human life (happiness, resulting from absence of physical pain and mental disturbance), an empiricist theory of knowledge (sensations, together with the perception of pleasure and pain, are infallible criteria), a description of nature based on atomistic materialism, and a naturalistic account of evolution, from the formation of the world to the emergence of human societies. Here are some Epicurus Quotes.
Famous 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.”
“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.”
“Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.”
“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.”
“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.”
“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?”
“Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”
“The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.”
“The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.”
“In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most.”
“The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.”
“It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.”
“He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.”
Epicurus Quote about Life
“Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.”
“The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.”
“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.”
“If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.”
“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
“Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.”
“Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.”
“Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized.”
“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.”
“A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness.”
“I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.”
“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.”
“He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing .”
“If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.”
“Some men spend their whole life furnishing for themselves the things proper to life without realizing that at our birth each of us was poured a mortal brew to drink.”
“A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.”
“To eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf.”
“I was not; I have been; I am not; I do not mind.”
“The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship.”
“Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.”
“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.”
“Let no one delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old.”
“Freedom is the greatest fruit of self sufficiency.”
“There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.”
“The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.”
“He who says either that the time for philosophy has not yet come or that it has passed is like someone who says that the time for happiness has not yet come or that it has passed.”
“Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.”
“Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.”
“All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help”