Epicurus Quotes

Let no one delay the study of philosophy while young nor weary of it when old.

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little

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

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

Why are you afraid of death? Where you are, death is not. Where death is, you are not. What is it that you fear.

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

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.

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

Death is nothing to us: for that which is dissolved is without sensation; and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us.

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

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

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

Natural wealth is limited and easily obtained; the wealth defined by vain fancies is always beyond reach.

I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.

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.

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

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

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

As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters.

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.

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.

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

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

Many friends are the key to happiness

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.

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.

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

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

A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand, there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

Without confidence, there is no friendship.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

When someone admits one and rejects another which is equally in accordance with the appearances, it is clear that he has quitted all physical explanation and descended into myth.

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.

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

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.

The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

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

Where I am death is not, where death is I am not.

The man who says that all events are necessitated has no ground for critizing the man who says that not all events are necessitated. For according to him this is itself a necessitated event.

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

Men inflict injuries from hatred, jealousy or contempt, but the wise man masters all these passions by means of reason.

The impassive soul disturbs neither itself nor others.

The true Epicurean cultivates the capacity to take pleasure in simple things, while those around him chase pleasure in more things.