Epicurus Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. 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 makes a mortal life happy, not by adding to it an infinite time, but by taking away the desire for immortality. For there is no reason why the man who is thoroughly assured that there is nothing to fear in death should find anything to fear in life. So, too, he is foolish who says that he fears death, not because it will be painful when it comes, but because the anticipation of it is painful; for that which is no burden when it is present gives pain to no purpose when it is anticipated. Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist. It is therefore nothing either to the living or to the dead since it is not present to the living, and the dead no longer are. Letter to Menoeceus

2. 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.

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

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

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

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

7. The strong stand taken by the Epicureans against all these tendencies was taken not in the name of science and human knowledge alone but in the name of human happiness, on the reasonable assumption that if men know the true nature of reality they are more likely to be happy than if they do not. Hence the happy and the good life presupposes knowing and knowing how to know. The Art of Happiness

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. Don't fear the gods,Don't worry about death;What is good is easy to get, andWhat is terrible is easy to endure. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia

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

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

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

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

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

16. Once a man has purged away "the terror in the soul" by acknowledging that death "is nothing to us" and hell simply a psychological projection of present torments and frustrations, he is ready for the happy life - pleasure, a minimum of pain, freedom from neurotic fears, and spiritual composure.

17. 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. Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings

18. The strong stand taken by the Epicureans against all these tendencies was taken not in the name of science and human knowledge alone but in the name of human happiness, on the reasonable assumption that if men know the true nature of reality they are more likely to be happy than if they do not. Hence the happy and the good life presupposes knowing and knowing how to know. The Art of Happiness

19. The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

20. 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. Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings