I leave you the best phrases of Epicurus, Greek philosopher founder of Epicureanism. His doctrine was based on the search for pleasure, although from prudence. Only a few fragments and letters remain of the 300 written works of Epicurus. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.
In ethics he is famous for proposing the theory of hedonism, which maintains that pleasure is the only intrinsic value. For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy is to achieve a happy and peaceful life, characterized by ataraxia -peace and freedom from fear-, aponia -the absence of pain-, and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends.
Epicurus taught that pleasure and pain are measures of what is good and bad; death is the end of the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared; gods do not reward or punish humans. The universe is infinite and eternal, and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.
Epicurus was born on the island of Samos, to Athenian parents who had come there as military settlers. His father, a school teacher, was called Neocles, his mother was called Chairestrate. They were both from the same village, Gargettos. According to his own report, Epicurus began his study of philosophy at the age of 14.
He studied in Athens and after studying the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus, he finally returned to Samos to start his own school, The Garden, which attracted many students. Epicurus is considered an important figure in the history of science and philosophy.
You may also be interested in these phrases of Empedocles or these of Parmenides.
His best phrases
-Skilled boaters earn their reputation from storms and tempests.
-It is not so much the help of our friends as the confidence of their help.
-The man is rich since he becomes familiar with scarcity.
-Nothing is enough who for enough is little.
-If you want to be rich, do not strive to increase your assets, but to decrease your greed.
-He who is not satisfied with little is not satisfied with nothing.
-Justice is the revenge of the social man, as revenge is the justice of the wild man.
-The life of the fool is empty of gratitude and full of fear.
-The goods are for those who know how to enjoy them.
-It is absurd to ask the gods for what one cannot provide for oneself.
-He who needs the least of tomorrow, the more he advances towards it.
-Everyone leaves life as if they had just been born.
-You don't develop courage by being happy in your daily personal relationships. You develop it by surviving tough times and defying adversity.
-There will come a time when you think that everything is over. That will be the beginning.
-The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
-The young man should not be happy, but the old man who has lived a beautiful life.
-The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the foolish.
-It is not what we have, but what we enjoy that constitutes our abundance.
-The greater the difficulty, the greater glory in overcoming it.
-Eating and drinking without a friend is like devouring like the lion and the wolf.
-It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely, well and justly. And it is impossible to live wisely, well and justly without living a pleasant life.
-Of all the things that wisdom provides to make us completely happy, the greatest is the possession of friendship.
-I'd rather be first in a small Iberian town than second in Rome.
-The time most of you should retreat is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
-Don't spoil what you have by wanting what you don't have; Remember that what you have now was once things you only wanted.
-If God listened to the prayers of man, all would have perished quickly, because they always pray for the evil of others.
-We must meditate, therefore, on the things that bring us happiness, because, if we enjoy it, we have everything and, if we lack it, we do everything possible to obtain it.
-The wealth required by nature is limited and easy to acquire, but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.
-Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it comes, we no longer exist.
-It is better for you to be free from fear lying on a pallet, than to have a golden sofa and a rich table full of problems.
-Death is not real neither for the living nor for the dead, since it is far from the former and, when it approaches the latter, they have already disappeared.
-God wants to prevent evil but cannot? So it is not omnipotent. Are you capable, but not willing to prevent it? So it is malevolent.
-The one who has peace of mind does not bother himself or the other.
-Empty is the philosopher's argument that it does not alleviate human suffering.
-The young man must seek wisdom so that, once he becomes old, he will not be afraid of what is to come.
-The good man cares about wisdom and friendship; the first is a mortal good, while the second is immortal.
-Having many possessions is accepting a life without freedom.
-Justice is a pact not to harm or be harmed.
-The men lived oppressed with a servile fear. Religious tyranny was dominant and, in the end, the power of Greece allowed the freedom of man.
-Never say that I have taken it, only that I have returned it.
-Don't fear the gods, don't worry about death; what is good is easy to achieve and what is terrible is easy to bear.
-To make a man happy, do not give him riches, take away his wishes.
-Speaking in the abstract, justice does not exist. It is just a pact between men.
-The one who says that the moment of philosophy has not yet come or has passed is like saying that the moment of happiness has not yet arrived or has passed.