Epicurus Quotes

• If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.

  Epicurus

• If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.

  Epicurus

  Topics in God

• I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Village

• I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

  Epicurus

• 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.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Self, Wished

• 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.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hope

• Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Longer, Concern

• A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Possessions

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

  Epicurus

  Topics in Power

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

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Men

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

  Epicurus

  Topics in Death

• To be rich is not the end, but only a change, of worries.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Worry

• Thus that which is the most awful of evils, death, is nothing to us, since when we exist there is no death, and when there is death we do not exist.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Death

  Tags in Evil

• 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?

  Epicurus

  Topics in God

  Tags in Agnosticism Atheism, Evil

• The greater difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Overcoming, Adversity

• It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.

  Epicurus

  Topics in Confidence, Friendship

  Tags in Our, Us, Their, Helps, Friends, Help, Much

Epicurus (36)

Birth:	341 BC
Death:	270 BC
Nationality:	Greek
Profession:	Philosopher

About

Epicurus was born in Samos, Greek. He was a Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. As a boy, he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of eighteen, he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service.

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