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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Freedom is the greatest fruit of self sufficiency.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)

If death causes you no pain when you're dead, it is foolish to allow the fear of it to cause you pain now.

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

Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. Epicurus taught: Pleasure, defined as freedom from pain, is the highest good.

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

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.