34 Quotes By Epicurus That Will Help To Think And Act Differently.

Ankit kumar Mahakur
5 min readFeb 28, 2023

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

Quotes of Epicurus.

Know Epicurus In A Few Words.

Epicurus the founder of Epicureanism, was a famous Greek philosopher. He was born on the Greek island of Samos. He was a great supporter of women's empowerment, and slaves while allowing them in his school, ‘The Garden.’

In his contemporary era of Christianity, the faced lot of difficulties with his idealistic teachings. He believed death is certain, and torment after death is a vague idea.

People leveled him as a hedonist, as he instigated them to seek their own pleasure imbibing morality in life. God exists but not to punish you for your immortality. He has no involvement at all in human affairs. And, death is the end of the body and soul.

He advocated more on the idea to live a happy life through friends and good relationships with loved ones.

He also highlighted his thoughts on Philosophy, death, and the art of living a meaningful contented life.

Simple life could be achieved through making wise choices. Our action comes back to us in their own ways. Immorality and dishonesty bring unhappiness in life. These simple high-weighted sentences show how he had elevated his thoughts to the purest form.

I want you to read these quotes rhythmically, understanding each word with its deeper meaning. This knowledge is important to lead a happy and contented life.

Let's read the noble thought of Epicurus one by one.

:- Live in obscurity.

:- Contented poverty is an honorable estate.

:- Fortune seldom troubles the wise man.

:- The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

:- The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.

:- Do everything like someone is gazing at you.

:- Freedom is the greatest fruit of self-sufficiency.

:- Live your life without attracting attention.

:- A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear.

  1. The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
  2. Nothing is sufficient for the person who finds sufficiency too little.
  3. 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.
  4. We cannot live pleasantly without living wisely and nobly and righteously.
  5. The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
  6. If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
  7. 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?
  8. 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.
  9. He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.
  10. He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing.
  11. Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
  12. The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.
  13. He who least needs tomorrow will most gladly greet tomorrow.
  14. Never say that I have taken it, only that I have given it back.
  15. Not what we have, but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance.
  16. I am grateful to blessed Nature because she made what is necessary easy to acquire and what is hard to acquire unnecessary.
  17. 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.
  18. We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.
  19. 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.
  20. It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.
  21. It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
  22. Of all the things that wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
  23. You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
  24. In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most.
  25. A strong belief in fate is the worst kind of slavery; on the other hand, there is a comfort in the thought that God will be moved by our prayers.

--

--