Epicurus Men Quotations

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Happiness is man's greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones of happiness.

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.

The man least dependent upon the morrow goes to meet the morrow most cheerfully.

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.

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

A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.

Man was not intended by nature to live in communities and be civilized.

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.

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.

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

Any man who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world.

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

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

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.

Most men are in a coma when they are at rest and mad when they act.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Justice is never anything in itself, but in the dealings of men with one another in any place whatever and at any time. It is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

Only the just man enjoys peace of mind.

There is nothing terrible in life for the man who realizes there is nothing terrible in death.