Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings
Epicurus was the great Greek philosopher famous for regarding pleasure as the ultimate good. Nowadays people confuse Epicureanism with hedonism of the indulgent kind; the two have the same ends but the means are completely antithetical. Epicurean philosophy focuses on how best to achieve the happiest life through sober rationality and prudence. From advocating sober rationality and realizing that the mind is the master of pleasure and pain, Epicureanism is eerily like Stoicism even though in history the two schools and their followers were irreconcilably antagonistic. Anyone would benefit from reading Epicurus since it deals with how to optimize one’s mental state for happiness. Epicurus’ Letter to Menoeceus outlines the general ethical system while the Principal Doctrines and Vatican Sayings are a collection of interesting aphorisms that largely reflect and elaborate upon the contents of the Letter.
One recurring theme that lays at the foundation of the school of thought is Epicurus’ wise pragmatism. Instead of caving into trendy Platonic tendencies to idealize aspects of life or idealize death, Epicurus pragmatically says that there is no afterlife and what we sense and perceive is all there is. To an extent, he simplifies the world and arguably oversimplifies, but there is a specific goal that he is getting at: that philosophy should be a means for people to achieve pleasure, defined as health of body and peace of mind. In addition, Epicurus was a proponent for simple and practical living, not because there was something admirable about just living simply but because it maximizes our pleasure when we do have occasional luxury and minimizes the pain of being denied luxury. In addition to being a philosopher, I would argue he’s probably the among best behavioral psychologists of the age with his only rivals being some of the great Stoics; and as our brains haven’t changed in the past 2,000 years, his conclusions are just as practical and useful today.
% grep -i "letters, principal doctrines, and vatican sayings" quotes.txt15 matches
on mortality
“While we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on mortality
“All good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on mortality
“It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men all live in a city without walls”
— Epicurus, Vatican Sayings
on pleasure
“To be accustomed to simple and plain livings … makes us more ready for the enjoyment of luxury if at intervals we chance to meet with it, and it renders us fearless against misfortune”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on pleasure
“By pleasure we mean the state wherein the body is free from pain and the mind from anxiety”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on pleasure
“As one does not choose the food that is in most quantity but that which is most pleasant, so he does not seek the enjoyment of the longest life but of the happiest”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on pleasure and reason
“A pleasant life is produced by the reason which is sober, which examines the motive for every choice and rejection, and which drives away all those opinions through which the greatest tumult lays hold of the mind”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on pleasure and reason
“The mind attains its utmost pleasure in reflecting on the very things that used to cause the greatest mental fears and on things like them”
— Epicurus, Principal Doctrines
on pleasure and friends
“Of the things that wisdom prepares for insuring lifelong happiness, by far the greatest is the possession of friends”
— Epicurus, Principal Doctrines
on pleasure and death
“The true belief that death is nothing to us makes a mortal life happy … by taking away the desire for immortality”
— Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus
on luxury
“Natural wealth is easily obtained; the wealth defined by vain fancies is always beyond reach”
— Epicurus, Principal Doctrines
on gratitude
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for”
— Epicurus, Vatican Sayings
on gratitude
“ The thankless nature of the soul makes the creature endlessly greedy of changes in its way of life”
— Epicurus, Vatican Sayings
on friendship
“We show our feelings for friends not by wailing at their funerals, but by meditating on their lives”
— Epicurus, Vatican Sayings
on good and evil
“No one chooses a thing realizing that it is evil; but when it appears as good in contrast to a greater evil, he takes the bait and is caught”
— Epicurus, Vatican Sayings