Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Epicurus (Greek Philosopher)

Epicurus (c.342–270 BCE) was a Ancient 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.

Epicurus was mostly known as being the creator of ‘Epicureanism.’ a popular belief in Hellenistic Philosophy over 600 years. While Epicurus was a hedonist given that he believed that the goal of all activity was pleasure, he had an austere definition of it—for Epicurus, the pleasure was merely the absence of discomfort, pain, or fear. 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 without pursuing wealth or glory.

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.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Epicurus

He who doesn’t find a little enough will find nothing enough.
—Epicurus
Topics: Wealth

To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries.
—Epicurus
Topics: Worry

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

The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.
—Epicurus
Topics: The Present, Independence, Future

A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fear

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
—Epicurus

Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily.
—Epicurus
Topics: Love

Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, the most important by far is acquiring friends.
—Epicurus

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
—Epicurus
Topics: Dying, Death

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

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
—Epicurus
Topics: Atheism

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
—Epicurus
Topics: Eating

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

Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor.
—Epicurus
Topics: Goodness, Fear, Excellence, Life, Virtue, Action, Kindness

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

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
—Epicurus
Topics: Justice

The happiest men are those who have reached the point where they have nothing to fear from those who surround them.
—Epicurus

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

The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fame

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
—Epicurus

All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal.
—Epicurus
Topics: Pleasure

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

Natural justice is an agreement among men about what actions are suitable. Its aim is to prevent men from injuring one another, or to be injured.
—Epicurus

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.—Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
—Epicurus
Topics: Problems, Opposition, Endurance, Difficulty, Glory, Talent

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

Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.
—Epicurus

All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, and philosophy sink under it.
—Epicurus
Topics: Self-love

Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized.
—Epicurus
Topics: Civilization

It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.
—Epicurus
Topics: Self-reliance, Prayer

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

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