The foolβs life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
EpicurusRead
Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.
Interpretation
Friendship is essential for lasting happiness.
Epicurus emphasizes that fostering friendships is the key to sustaining happiness throughout one's life. He suggests that social connections enrich our experiences and contribute significantly to our overall well-being.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of community, I would cite Epicurus to highlight how friendships contribute to happiness.
The foolβs life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.
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.
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.
We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.
I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. (Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo)
Haec ego non multis (scribo), sed tibi: satis enim magnum alter alteri theatrum sumus. I am writing this not to many, but to you: certainly we are a great enough audience for each other.
I don't know what I would do in the world without [female friends] for advice, for comfort, for simply knowing that there is someone out there who knows me as I am, and loves me despite and because of it.
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
In the end all books are written for your friends.
No good friends, no bad friends; only people you want, need to be with. People who build their houses in your heart.
Let us drink together, fellows, as we did in days of yore. And still enjoy the golden hours that Fortune has in store; The absent friends remembered be, in all thatβs sung or said, And Love immortal consecrate the memory of the dead.
I let the dog out, or I let him in, and we talk some. I let him know I like him, and he lets me know he likes me.
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