Epicurus Quotes - Page 5

Men are so thoughtless, nay, so mad, that some, through fear of death, force themselves to die.

My garden does not whet the appetite; it satisfies it. It does not provoke thirst through heedless indulgence, but slakes it by proffering its natural remedy. Amid such pleasures as these have I grown old.

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

Thanks be to blessed Nature that she has made what is necessary easy to obtain, and what is not easy unnecessary.

The honor paid to a wise man is a great good for those who honor him.

There are infinite worlds both like and unlike this world of ours. For the atoms being infinite in number... are borne on far out into space.

Gratitude is a virtue that has commonly profit annexed to it.

What men fear is not that death is annihilation but that it is not.

The guilty man may escape, but he cannot be sure of doing so.

Moreover, the universe as a whole is infinite, for whatever is limited has an outermost edge to limit it, and such an edge is defined by something beyond. Since the universe has no edge, it has no limit; and since it lacks a limit, it is infinite and unbounded. Moreover, the universe is infinite both in the number of its atoms and in the extent of its void.

A world is a circumscribed portion of sky... it is a piece cut off from the infinite.

A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand, there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so, cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, than they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?

It is impossible for someone to dispel his fears about the most important matters if he doesn't know the nature of the universe but still gives some credence to myths. So without the study of nature there is no enjoyment of pure pleasure.

Without confidence, there is no friendship.

Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good

Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.

But the universe is infinite.

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

Any device whatever by which one frees himself from the fear of others is a natural good.

Death is meaningless to the living because they are living, and meaningless to the dead… because they are dead.

We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

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.

Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. Epicurus taught: Pleasure, defined as freedom from pain, is the highest good.

Most beautiful is the sight of those near and dear to us when our original kinship makes us of one mind.