Epicurus’s Quotes That Will Change Your Life Forever!

death therefore the most awful of evils is nothing to us seeing that when we are death is not coming and when death is coming we are not death does not concern us because as long as we exist death is not here and when it does come we no longer exist it is possible to provide security against other ills but as far as death is concerned we men live in a city without walls the art of living well and the art of dying well are one some men spend their whole life furnishing for themselves the things proper to life without realizing that our birth each of us was poured a mortal brew to drink it is not so much our friends help that helps us as the confidence of their help you don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day you develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity the noble man is chiefly concerned with wisdom and friendship of these the former is a mortal good the latter an immortal one to eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf we should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink nothing is enough for the man who enough is too little he who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing the misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool i was not i was i am not i care not he who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life empty is the argument of the philosopher which does not relieve any human suffering the fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears its course lies wholly toward the future 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 the greater the difficulty the more the glory in surmounting it live in obscurity if a person fights the clear evidence of his senses he will never be able to share a genuine tranquility he who least needs tomorrow will most gladly greet tomorrow it is not the pretended but the real pursuit of philosophy that is needed for we do not need the appearance of good health but to enjoy it in truth if god listened to the prayers of all men all men would quickly have perished for they are forever praying for evil against one another it is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself i never desired to please the rabble what pleased them i did not learn and what i knew was far removed from their understanding 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 the time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd don't fear the gods don't worry about death what is good is easy to get and what is terrible is easy to endure 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 if god listened to the prayers of men all men would quickly have perished for they are forever praying for evil against one another it is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a palate than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble 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 if thou wilt make a man happy add not unto his riches but take away from his desires a free life cannot acquire many possessions because this is not easy to do without servility to mops or monarchs there is no such thing as justice in the abstract it is merely a compact between men justice is a kind of compact not to harm or to be harmed the wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity never say that i have taken it only that i have given it back the opinions held by most people about the gods are not true conceptions of them but fallacious notions according to which awful penalties are meted out to the evil and the greatest of blessings to the good we must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness since if that be present we have everything and if that be absent all of our actions are directed towards attaining it 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 we must therefore pursue the things that make for happiness seeing that when happiness is present we have everything but when it is absent we do everything to possess it contented poverty is an honorable estate i am grateful to be blessed nature because she made what is necessary easy to acquire and what is hard to acquire unnecessary not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance 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