Contents:

Principal Doctrines.............................................................................................................................................1

Epicurus...................................................................................................................................................1

1. A happy and eternal being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; hence he is

exempt from movements of anger and partiality, for every such movement implies weakness

2. Death is nothing to us; for the body, when it has been resolved into its elements, has no feeling, and that

3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as

it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

4. Continuous pain does not last long in the body; on the contrary, pain, if extreme, is present a short time,

and even that degree of pain which barely outweighs pleasure in the body does not last for many days

together. Illnesses of long duration even permit of an excess of pleasure over pain in the body.

5. 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 pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for

instance, the person is not able to live wisely, though he lives well and justly, it is impossible for him to live a

6. In order to obtain security from other people any means whatever of procuring this was a natural good.

7. Some people have sought to become famous and renowned, thinking that thus they would make

themselves secure against their fellowhumans. If, then, the life of such persons really was secure, they

attained natural good; if, however, it was insecure, they have not attained the end which by nature's own

8. No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times

9. If all pleasure had been capable of accumulation, if this had gone on not only be recurrences in time,

but all over the frame or, at any rate, over the principal parts of human nature, there would never have been

10. If the objects which are productive of pleasures to profligate persons really freed them from fears of the

mind, the fears, I mean, inspired by celestial and atmospheric phenomena, the fear of death, the fear of

pain; if, further, they taught them to limit their desires, we should never have any fault to find with such

persons, for they would then be filled with pleasures to overflowing on all sides and would be exempt from

11. If we had never been molested by alarms at celestial and atmospheric phenomena, nor by the misgiving

that death somehow affects us, nor by neglect of the proper limits of pains and desires, we should have had

12. It would be impossible to banish fear on matters of the highest importance, if a person did not know the

nature of the whole universe, but lived in dread of what the legends tell us. Hence without the study of nature

13. There would be no advantage in providing security against our fellow humans, so long as we were

alarmed by occurrences over our heads or beneath the earth or in general by whatever happens in the

14. When tolerable security against our fellow humans is attained, then on a basis of power sufficient to

afford supports and of material prosperity arises in most genuine form the security of a quiet private life

15. Nature's wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an

16. Fortune but seldom interferes with the wise person; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and

17. The just person enjoys. the greatest peace of mind, while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude.

18. Pleasure in the body admits no increase when once the pain of want has been removed; after that it only

admits of variation. The limit of pleasure in the mind, however, is reached when we reflect on the things

19. Unlimited time and limited time afford an equal amount of pleasure, if we measure the limits of that

20. The body receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the

mind, grasping in thought what the end and limit of the body is, and banishing the terrors of futurity, procures

a complete and perfect life, and has no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless it does not shun

pleasure, and even in the hour of death, when ushered out of existence by circumstances, the mind does not

21. He who understands the limits of life knows how easy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of want

and make the whole of life complete and perfect. Hence he has no longer any need of things which are not to

22. We must take into account as the end all that really exists and all clear evidence of sense to which we

refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

23. If you fight against all your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of

24. If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to discriminate with respect to that which

awaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that which is already present, whether in sensation or in

feelings or in any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw into confusion even the rest of your

sensations by your groundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standard of truth altogether. If in your

ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does

not, you will not escape error, as you will be maintaining complete ambiguity whenever it is a case of judging

25. If you do not on every separate occasion refer each of your actions to the end prescribed by nature, but

instead of this in the act of choice or avoidance swerve aside to some other end, your acts will not be

26. All such desires as lead to no pain when they remain ungratified are unnecessary, and the longing is easily

got rid of, when the thing desired is difficult to procure or when the desires seem likely to produce harm.

27. Of all the means which are procured by wisdom to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far

28. The same conviction which inspires confidence that nothing we have to fear is eternal or even of long

duration, also enables us to see that even in our limited conditions of life nothing enhances our security so

29. Of our desires some are natural and necessary others are natural, but not necessary; others, again, are

30. Those natural desires which entail no pain when not gratified, though their objects are vehemently

pursued, are also due to illusory opinion; and when they are not got rid of, it is not because of their own

31. Natural justice is a symbol or expression of usefullness, to prevent one person from harming or being

32. Those animals which are incapable of making covenants with one another, to the end that they may

neither inflict nor suffer harm, are without either justice or injustice. And those tribes which either could not

33. There never was an absolute justice, but only an agreement made in reciprocal association in whatever

localities now and again from time to time, providing against the infliction or suffering of harm.

34. Injustice is not in itself an evil, but only in its consequence, viz. the terror which is excited by

apprehension that those appointed to punish such offenses will discover the injustice.

35. It is impossible for the person who secretly violates any article of the social compact to feel confident that

he will remain undiscovered, even if he has already escaped ten thousand times; for right on to the end of his

36. Taken generally, justice is the same for all, to wit, something found useful in mutual association; but in its

application to particular cases of locality or conditions of whatever kind, it varies under different

37. Among the things accounted just by conventional law, whatever in the needs of mutual association is

attested to be useful, is thereby stamped as just, whether or not it be the same for all; and in case any law is

made and does not prove suitable to the usefulness of mutual association, then this is no longer just. And

should the usefulness which is expressed by the law vary and only for a time correspond with the prior

conception, nevertheless for the time being it was just, so long as we do not trouble ourselves about empty

38. Where without any change in circumstances the conventional laws, when judged by their consequences,

were seen not to correspond with the notion of justice, such laws were not really just; but wherever the laws

have ceased to be useful in consequence of a change in circumstances, in that case the laws were for the time

being just when they were useful for the mutual association of the citizens, and subsequently ceased to be just

39. He who best knew how to meet fear of external foes made into one family all the creatures he could; and

those he could not, he at any rate did not treat as aliens; and where he found even this impossible, he avoided

40. Those who were best able to provide themselves with the means of security against their neighbors, being

thus in possession of the surest guarantee, passed the most agreeable life in each other's society; and their

enjoyment of the fullest intimacy was such that, if one of them died before his time, the survivors did not