Epicurus Quotes

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Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

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

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The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

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If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

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Vain is the word of that philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man.

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All friendship is desirable in itself, though it starts from the need of help.

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Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

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He who least needs tomorrow, will most gladly greet tomorrow.

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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.

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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?

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We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

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Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.

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Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.

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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.

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The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

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It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.

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We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for happiness, seeing that when happiness is present, we have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything to possess it.

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

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

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How unhappy are the lives of men! How purblind their hearts!

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The noble man is chiefly concerned with wisdom and friendship; of these, the former is a mortal good, the latter and immortal one.

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It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

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We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.

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

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

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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.

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The opinions held by most people about the gods are not true conceptions of them but fallacious notions, according to which awful penalties are meted out to the evil and the greatest of blessings to the good.

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It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

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when you die, your mind will be gone even faster than your body.

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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.

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

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The purpose of all knowledge, metaphysical as well as scientific, is to achieve what Epicurus called ataraxia, freedom from irrational fears and anxieties of all sorts in brief, peace of mind.

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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.

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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 with us or do not understand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind. For it is not continuous drinkings and revelings, nor the satisfaction of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table, which produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, searching out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banishing mere opinions, to which are due the greatest disturbance of the spirit.

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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

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Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.

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I was not, I was, I am not, I care not.

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

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It is not possible for a man to banish all fear of the essential questions of life unless he understands the nature of the universe and unless he banishes all consideration that the fables told about the universe could be true. Therefore a man cannot enjoy full happiness, untroubled by turmoil, unless he acts to gain knowledge of the nature of things.

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You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

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Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

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Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

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I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.