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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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
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
Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily.
—Epicurus
Topics: Love
The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.
—Epicurus
Topics: Action
Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor.
—Epicurus
Topics: Virtue, Excellence, Action, Fear, Kindness, Goodness, Life
Of all the things that wisdom provides for the happiness of a whole life, the most important by far is acquiring friends.
—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
Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.
—Epicurus
Topics: Misfortunes, Fortune
It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.
—Epicurus
Topics: Self-reliance, Prayer
Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.
—Epicurus
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
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
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth is unhappy, though he is master of the world.
—Epicurus
Topics: Appreciation, Happiness, Blessings, Gratitude, Unhappiness
In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most.
—Epicurus
Topics: Learning
The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
—Epicurus
Topics: Blessings
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
I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.
—Epicurus
Topics: Popularity
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
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
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 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.
—Epicurus
Topics: Happiness
No pleasure is intrinsically bad, but what causes pleasure is accompanied by many things that disturb pleasure.
—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
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
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
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
Let no one delay the study of philosophy when young nor weary of it when old.
—Epicurus
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
—Epicurus
Topics: Happiness
The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.
—Epicurus
Topics: Fame
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
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