110+ Epicurus Quotes On Happiness, Pleasure And Friendship

Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who lived from 341-270 BCE. He is best known for his philosophical school, Epicureanism, which argued that pleasure should be the highest goal of life. Epicurus also believed that the gods were distant and unconcerned with humanity, and that death was not to be feared. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Epicurus on happiness, pleasure, friendship.

Top 10 Epicurus Quotes

1. Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.
2. Remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for.
3. Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?
4. Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.
5. We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
6. Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
7. If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
8. 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.
9. If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
10. Pleasure is the first good. It is the beginning of every choice and every aversion. It is the absence of pain in the body and of troubles in the soul.

Epicurus Image Quotes

Remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for. — Epicurus

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

Epicurus Short Quotes

• The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
• Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.
• Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.
• Freedom is the greatest fruit of self sufficiency.
• It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
• Launch your boat, blessed youth, and flee at full speed from every form of culture.
• The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
• The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
• Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.
• There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men

Epicurus Quotes About Happiness

We have been born once and there can be no second birth. Fir all eternity we shall no longer be. But you, although you are not master of tomorrow, are postponing your happiness. — 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 the young man who should be considered fortunate but the old man who has lived well, because the young man in his prime wanders much by chance, vacillating in his beliefs, while the old man has docked in the harbor, having safeguarded his true happiness. — Epicurus

Tranquil pleasure constitutes human beings' supreme good — Epicurus

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

Of all the gifts that wise Providence grants us to make life full and happy, friendship is the most beautiful. — Epicurus

If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy. — Epicurus

Many friends are the key to happiness — Epicurus

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

No pleasure is evil in itself; but the means by which certain pleasures are gained bring pains many times greater than the pleasures. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Pleasure

The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain. — Epicurus

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

Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. — Epicurus

We begin every act of choice and avoidance from pleasure, and it is to pleasure that we return using our experience of pleasure as the criterion of every good thing. — Epicurus

I spit upon luxurious pleasures, not for their own sake, but because of the inconveniences that follow them. — Epicurus

All sensations are true; pleasure is our natural goal. — Epicurus

Pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it we always come back, inasmuch as we make feeling the rule by which to judge of every good thing. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

The flesh believes that pleasure is limitless and that it requires unlimited time; but the mind, understanding the end and limit of the flesh and ridding itself of fears of the future, secures a complete life and has no longer any need for unlimited time. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Friendship

The noble soul occupies itself with wisdom and friendship. — Epicurus

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

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

Without confidence, there is no friendship. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Life

He who understands the limits of life knows that it is easy to obtain that which removes the pain of want and makes the whole of life complete and perfect. Thus he has no longer any need of things which involve struggle. — Epicurus

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs. — Epicurus

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

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

The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future. — Epicurus

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs... — Epicurus

Fortune seldom troubles the wise man. Reason has controlled his greatest and most important affairs, controls them throughout his life, and will continue to control them. — Epicurus

Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor. — Epicurus

Some men spend their whole life furnishing for themselves the things proper to life without realizing that at our birth each of us was poured a mortal brew to drink. — Epicurus

The wise man neither rejects life nor fears death... just as he does not necessarily choose the largest amount of food, but, rather, the pleasantest food, so he prefers not the longest time, but the most pleasant. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Epicureanism

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. — Epicurus

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? — Epicurus

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

Don't fear god, Don't worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and What is terrible is easy to endure — Epicurus

Stranger, here you will do well to tarry; here our highest good is pleasure. — Epicurus

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Death

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

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

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one. — Epicurus

If death causes you no pain when you're dead, it is foolish to allow the fear of it to cause you pain now. — Epicurus

Death, the most dreaded of all 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. — 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

Why are you afraid of death? Where you are, death is not. Where death is, you are not. What is it that you fear. — Epicurus

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

Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not? Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear. Religious tyranny did domineer. At length the mighty one of Greece Began to assent the liberty of man. — Epicurus

So death, the most terrifying of ills, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist. It does not then concern either the living or the dead, since for the former it is not, and the latter are no more. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Free

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

A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness. — Epicurus

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

A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear. — Epicurus

Epicurus Quotes About Friends

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. — Epicurus

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

To eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf. — Epicurus

Epicurus Famous Quotes And Sayings

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? — Epicurus

Remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for. — Epicurus

Men, believing in myths, will always fear something terrible, everlasting punishment as certain or probable . . . Men base all these fears not on mature opinions, but on irrational fancies, that they are more disturbed by fear of the unknown than by facing facts. Peace of mind lies in being delivered from all these fears. — Epicurus

The pleasant life is not produced by continual drinking and dancing, nor sexual intercourse, nor rare dishes of sea food and other delicacies of a luxurious table. On the contrary, it is produced by sober reasoning which examines the motives for every choice and avoidance, driving away beliefs which are the source of mental disturbances. — Epicurus

Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy. — Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men in their various relations with each other, in whatever circumstances they may be, that they will neither injure nor be injured. — Epicurus

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can and does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world? — Epicurus

A strict belief in fate is the worst of slavery, imposing upon our necks an everlasting lord and tyrant, whom we are to stand in awe of night and day. — Epicurus

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

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

For a wrongdoer to be undetected is difficult; and for him to have confidence that his concealment will continue is impossible. — Epicurus

An irreligious man is not one who denies the gods of the majority, but one who applies to the gods the opinions of the majority. For what most men say about the gods are not ideas derived from sensation, but false opinions, according to which the greatest evils come to the wicked, and the greatest blessings come to the good from the gods. — Epicurus

All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy, sink under it. — Epicurus

Do everything like someone is gazing at you. — Epicurus

Only the just man enjoys peace of mind. — Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice or injustice among those beasts that cannot make agreements not to injure or be injured. This is also true of those tribes that are unable or unwilling to make agreements not to injure or be injured. — Epicurus

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

Natural justice is a compact resulting from expediency by which men seek to prevent one man from injuring others and to protect him from being injured by them. — Epicurus

Virtue consisteth of three parts,--temperance, fortitude, and justice. — Epicurus

The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation. — Epicurus

The acquisition of riches has been for many men, not an end, but a change, of troubles. — Epicurus

The mind that is much elevated and insolent with prosperity, and cast down with adversity, is generally abject and base. — Epicurus

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth . — Epicurus

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

A beneficent person is like a fountain watering the earth, and spreading fertility; it is, therefore, more delightful to give than to receive. — Epicurus

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men. — Epicurus

As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters. — Epicurus

Let no young man delay the study of philosophy, and let no old man become weary of it; for it is never too early nor too late to care for the well-being of the soul. — Epicurus

Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little — Epicurus

Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body, so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the mind. — Epicurus

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

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

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

The words of that philosopher who offers no therapy for human suffering are empty and vain. — Epicurus

To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries. — Epicurus

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. — Epicurus

Where I am death is not, where death is I am not. — Epicurus

The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised. — Epicurus

The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. — Epicurus

We must meditate on what brings happiness, since when it has, it has everything, and when he misses, we do everything to have it — Epicurus

It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself. — Epicurus

He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another. — Epicurus

Death is nothing to us: for after our bodies have been dissolved by death they are without sensation, and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us. And therefore a right understanding of death makes mortality enjoyable, not because it adds to an infinite span of time, but because it takes away the craving for immortality. — Epicurus

Life Lessons by Epicurus

1. Epicurus taught that pleasure is the highest good, and that the key to a good life is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure.
2. He also taught that friendship is essential to happiness, and that living simply and being content with what one has is the path to true fulfillment.
3. Epicurus also believed that understanding the limits of one's mortality is essential to living a life of meaning and purpose.