The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Appreciate what you currently have instead of longing for what you don't.
This quote by Epicurus emphasizes the importance of gratitude and contentment. It reminds us that our current possessions and circumstances were once simply dreams or desires, and by focusing on what we lack, we risk diminishing the joy of what we already have.
Themes
GratitudeContentmentAppreciationDesireHappiness
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal satisfaction and happiness.
More from Epicurus
All quotes →Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live.
EpicurusRead
The wise man who has become accustomed to necessities knows better how to share with others than how to take from them, so great a treasure of self-sufficiency has he found.
EpicurusRead
We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
EpicurusRead
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
EpicurusRead
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
EpicurusRead
Similar quotes
Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about anymore than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks. A good night's sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace.
Frederick BuechnerRead
The children would remember for the rest of their lives the august solemnity with which their father, devastated by his prolonged vigil and by the wraith of his imagination, revealed his discovery to them: 'The world is round, like an orange.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
Don’t let any emotional thought concerning success or failure, fame or gain, overtake you, and don’t dwell upon them. Give up your personal shortcomings, such as foolish talk, distracting activities, and absentmindedness. Train in being totally gentle in all physical, verbal, or mental activities. Don’t ponder the flaws of others; think instead of their good sides.
Tulku Urgyen RinpocheRead
I would much prefer to suffer from the clean incision of an honest lancet than from a sweetened poison.
Mark TwainRead
I feel like an inadequate machine, a machine that breaks down at crucial moments, grinds to a dreadful hault, 'won't go,' or, even worse, explodes in some innocent person's face.
May SartonRead
Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.
Abraham KaplanRead