The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.—Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
—Epicurus
Topics: Talent, Problems, Difficulty, Opposition, Glory, Endurance
The flesh endures the storms of the present alone, the mind those of the past and future as well.
—Epicurus
Topics: Eating, The Present, Food
A person cannot have a pleasant life unless he lives prudently, honorably and justly, nor can he live prudently, honorably and justly without a pleasant life. A person cannot possibly have a pleasant life unless he happens to live prudently, honorably and justly.
—Epicurus
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
—Epicurus
Topics: Confidence
It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
—Epicurus
Topics: Friendship, Confidence, Friends and Friendship
No pleasure is intrinsically bad, but what causes pleasure is accompanied by many things that disturb pleasure.
—Epicurus
Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, the most important by far is acquiring friends.
—Epicurus
Injustice is not intrinsically bad: people regard it as evil only because it is accompanied by the fear that they will not escape the officials who are appointed to punish evil actions.
—Epicurus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
—Epicurus
Death, the most dreaded of all 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.
—Epicurus
Topics: Death
Vast power and great wealth may, up to a certain point, grant us security as far as individual men are concerned, but the security of men as a whole depends on the tranquility of their souls and their freedom from ambition.
—Epicurus
A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fear
Justice has no independent existence: it results from mutual contracts, and we find it in force wherever there is a mutual agreement to guard against doing injury or sustaining it.
—Epicurus
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.
—Epicurus
Topics: Pleasure
Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.
—Epicurus
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
—Epicurus
Topics: Death, Wisdom
What is happy and imperishable suffers no trouble itself, nor does it cause trouble to anything. So it is not subject to feelings either of anger or of partiality, for these feelings exist only in what is weak.
—Epicurus
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
—Epicurus
Topics: Happiness
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
—Epicurus
The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
—Epicurus
Topics: Blessings
A strict belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand there is comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fate, Destiny
The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.
—Epicurus
Topics: Future, The Present, Independence
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth is unhappy, though he is master of the world.
—Epicurus
Topics: Unhappiness, Blessings, Gratitude, Appreciation, Happiness
Any device whatever by which one frees himself from fear is a natural good.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fear, Anxiety
When we have only a little we should be satisfied; for this reason, that those best enjoy abundance who are contented with the least.
—Epicurus
Topics: Poverty
Death is nothing to us, for that which is dissolved has no feeling whatsoever, and that which has no feeling means nothing to us.
—Epicurus
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.
—Epicurus
The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
—Epicurus
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.
—Epicurus
Topics: Action
Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily.
—Epicurus
Topics: Love
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Xenocrates Greek Philosopher, Scientist
- Plato Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Epictetus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Heraclitus Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Aristotle Ancient Greek Philosopher
- Bias of Priene Greek Orator
- Plotinus Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mystic
- Euripides Ancient Greek Dramatist
- Homer Ancient Greek Poet
- Pythagoras Greek Philosopher
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