Epicurus (c.342–270 BCE) was a Greek philosopher of the Hellenistic age. He is the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy, which sought happiness through simple living. His importance to science lies in his adapting and promulgating Democritean atomism.
Born on the Greek island of Samos, Epicurus began teaching philosophy at the age of 32. He settled in Athens in 306 BCE and tutored students in his Garden near the city of Athens. The English word “epicure,” denoting a person who loves good food and drink, is taken from Epicurus and the Epicureans.
While Epicurus was a hedonist given that he believed that the goal of all activity was a pleasure, he had an austere definition of it—for Epicurus, the pleasure was merely the absence of discomfort or pain. Epicurus advocated forgoing many short-term pleasures and instead focusing on the overall pleasure and pain distribution over a lifetime. More pleasurable than a life devoted to short-term pleasure was one in which one moderated one’s desires.
Epicurus’s literary output was substantial—Diogenes Laërtius, his principal biographer, inventories some 40 works. One of them, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things,) comprises 37 books. All that has survived is what seems to be an abridged version of Epicurus’s philosophy in the form of three letters, a few fragments, and a compilation of his more essential aphorisms entitled Major Opinions.
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A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs…
—Epicurus
Topics: Life and Living
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make life entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
—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
There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
—Epicurus
Topics: Justice
Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor.
—Epicurus
Topics: Virtue, Action, Kindness, Fear, Goodness, Life, Excellence
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth is unhappy, though he is master of the world.
—Epicurus
Topics: Gratitude, Happiness, Blessings, Unhappiness, Appreciation
Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, the most important by far is acquiring friends.
—Epicurus
Any device whatever by which one frees himself from fear is a natural good.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fear, Anxiety
The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fame
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: Destiny, Fate
No pleasure is intrinsically bad, but what causes pleasure is accompanied by many things that disturb pleasure.
—Epicurus
The happiest men are those who have reached the point where they have nothing to fear from those who surround them.
—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
To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries.
—Epicurus
Topics: Worry
Let no one delay the study of philosophy when young nor weary of it when old.
—Epicurus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
—Epicurus
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
—Epicurus
It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, and honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, and honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably.
—Epicurus
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