Epicurus Quotes

With the Epicureans it was never science for the sake of science but always science for the sake of human happiness.

Death is nothing to us, because a body that has been dispersed into elements experiences no sensations, and the absence of sensation is nothing to us.

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

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

Men inflict injuries from hatred, jealousy or contempt, but the wise man masters all these passions by means of reason.

I am grateful to blessed Nature, because she made what is necessary easy to acquire and what is hard to acquire unnecessary.

If death is we are not, if we are death is not.

One who understands the limits of the good life knows that what eliminates the pains brought on by need and what makes the whole of life perfect is easily obtained, so that there is no need for enterprises that entail the struggle for success.

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

Death is nothing to us. When we exist, death is not; and when death exists, we are not. All sensation and consciousness ends with death and therefore in death there is neither pleasure nor pain. The fear of death arises from the belief that in death, there is awareness.

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

He who is calm disturbs neither himself nor others.

We need to set our affections on one good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.

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.

The blessed and indestructible being of the divine has no concerns of its own, nor does it make trouble for others. It is not affected by feelings of anger or benevolence, because these are found where there is lack of strength.

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.

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

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

Death is nothing to us since when we are death has not come and when death has come we are not.

It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.

The cry of the flesh bids us escape from hunger, thirst, and cold; for he who is free of these and expects to remain so might live in happiness even with Zeus.