Quotes by Epicurus


He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
– Epicurus
A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.
– Epicurus
Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.
– 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
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
I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.
– Epicurus
If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
– Epicurus
If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
– Epicurus
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.
– Epicurus
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
– 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
It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
– Epicurus
It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.
– Epicurus
Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.
– Epicurus
Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
– Epicurus
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
– Epicurus
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
– Epicurus
Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.
– Epicurus
Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.
– Epicurus
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
– Epicurus
The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
– Epicurus
The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
– Epicurus
The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
– Epicurus
There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.
– Epicurus
You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
– Epicurus
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
Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.
– Epicurus
The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.
– Epicurus
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
– Epicurus
Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily.
– Epicurus