The foolβs life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True contentment comes from freedom from fear rather than material wealth.
This quote by Epicurus emphasizes the idea that a peaceful and fear-free state of being is far more valuable than living in luxury while being plagued by anxiety and troubles. It suggests that inner peace and happiness are foundational to a good life, overshadowing the importance of external possessions and wealth.
Themes
FreedomFearHappinessWealthTroubleContentment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used to inspire individuals struggling with anxiety about their financial situation.
More from Epicurus
All quotes βAccustom 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
Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion.
Charles LyellRead
The man who enters his wife's dressing room is either a philosopher or a fool.
Honore De BalzacRead
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith. We should live for the future, and yet should find our life in the fidelities of the present; the last is only the method of the first.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
The shadow escapes from the body like an animal we had been sheltering.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
If we do wrong and no harm comes of it, we are not thereby justified. If we did evil and good came of it, the evil would be just as evil. It is not the result of the action, but the action itself which God weighs.
Charles SpurgeonRead
The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.
George W. BushRead