The Principal Doctrines of Epicureanism (ca. 306 B.C.E.)

Epicurus (eh-pih-KYOUR-uhs), founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy, lived from 340 to 270 B.C.E., primarily in Athens. The central principle of his teachings was to live a life that was free of pain and fear (the bad) and filled with pleasure and friendship (the good). He presented arguments that helped establish numerous principles of scientific and religious study, including the idea that one should believe only that which can be observed. His sometimes unpopular theories challenged Greek notions of the gods’ power in their lives. Few of his works survive; the quotes that follow were recorded by Diogenes Laertius.

1. The blessed and immortal nature knows no trouble itself nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favor. For all such things exist only in the weak.

2. Death is nothing to us: for that which is dissolved is without sensation; and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us. . . .

4. Pain does not last continuously in the flesh, but the acutest pain is there for a very short time, and even that which just exceeds the pleasure in the flesh does not continue for many days at once. But chronic illnesses permit a predominance of pleasure over pain in the flesh.

5. It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honorably and justly, nor again to live a life of prudence, honor, and justice without living pleasantly. And the man who does not possess the pleasant life, is not living prudently and honorably and justly, and the man who does not possess the virtuous life, cannot possibly live pleasantly. . . .

7. Some men wished to become famous and conspicuous, thinking that they would thus win for themselves safety from other men. Wherefore if the life of such men is safe, they have obtained the good which nature craves; but if it is not safe, they do not possess that for which they strove at first by the instinct of nature.

8. No pleasure is a bad thing in itself: but the means which produce some pleasures bring with them disturbances many times greater than the pleasures. . . .

10. If the things that produce the pleasures of profligates1 could dispel the fears of the mind about the phenomena of the sky and death and its pains, and also teach the limits of desires and of pains, we should never have cause to blame them: for they would be filling themselves full with pleasures from every source and never have pain of body or mind, which is the evil of life. . . .

12. A man cannot dispel his fear about the most important matters if he does not know what is the nature of the universe but suspects the truth of some mythical story. So that without natural science it is not possible to attain our pleasures unalloyed.2 . . .

15. The wealth demanded by nature is both limited and easily procured; that demanded by idle imaginings stretches on to infinity. . . .

17. The just man is most free from trouble, the unjust most full of trouble. . . .

21. He who has learned the limits of life knows that that which removes the pain due to want and makes the whole of life complete is easy to obtain; so that there is no need of actions which involve competition. . . .

27. Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, far the greatest is the possession of friendship. . . .

31. The justice which arises from nature is a pledge of mutual advantage to restrain men from harming one another and save them from being harmed. . . .

33. Justice never is anything in itself, but in the dealings of men with one another in any place whatever and at any time it is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

From Whitney H. Oates, ed., The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers (New York: Modern Library, 1940), pp. 35–39.