Quotes by Epicurus

“Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.”

“When, therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of profligates and those that consist in sensuality, as is supposed by some who are either ignorant or disagree w...”

“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.”

“He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing .”

“Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us, since all good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death. Therefore the true belief that death is nothing to us make...”

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

“Don't fear the gods,Don't worry about death;What is good is easy to get, andWhat is terrible is easy to endure.”

“If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.”

“He who says either that the time for philosophy has not yet come or that it has passed is like someone who says that the time for happiness has not yet come or that it has passed.”

“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.”

“Empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering.”

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

“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.”

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

“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.”

“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...”

“Why should I fear death?If I am, then death is not.If Death is, then I am not.Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear.Religious tyran...”

“I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)”

“So death, the most terrifying of ills, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist. It does not then concern either the living or t...”

“[A] right understanding that death is nothingto us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not because it adds to itan infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving forimmortality. Fo...”